


Heroes with a Fullmetal Heart

by Internal_Screaming



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: BUT ED, Crossover, ED AND AL HAVE QUIRKS, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, IS BASICALLY TODO AND BAKU COMBINED, THEIR MOM IS STILL DEAD, al has automail, and scales the building on a daily basis, because he’s more mature, ed and al attend ua, ed hates baku, everyone thinks al is the older brother, hes in class 1-b, i have nothing against him, its going to be great, ling is in general studies, mineta didn’t get in, sorry - Freeform, sugar guy is kicked out sorry, they are all dumb children, winry is in engineering
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-16
Updated: 2019-07-23
Packaged: 2019-10-29 09:42:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 30,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17805662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Internal_Screaming/pseuds/Internal_Screaming
Summary: Edward and Alphonse Elric lost their mother to a quick and deadly illness at a young age, but when Alphonse’s quirk appears the boys come up with a plan that leaves an unsavoury stain on their past. Years later, they set their sights on the prestigious school U.A to train their quirks so they can reclaim what they lost and prevent others from using their quirks to make similar mistakes.The brothers learn to make new friends, rivals, and allies and fight the villains that lurk in the shadows in hopes of turning society on its head at a moments notice!





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I HAVE.
> 
> ZERO.
> 
> SELF CONTROL.
> 
> TAKE THIS FIC!
> 
> ALSO SOME DRAWINGS I DID AND INFO ON THEIR QUIRKS -> https://tumbling-darkling.tumblr.com/post/182466217187/alright-i-may-write-a-fic-in-the-future-but-for

“Your quirk can do it, Al!” Ed explained as he pushed forward multiple pages of loose paper, covered front to back in scribbled notes and equations. “After all of our training, we can finally bring her back!” 

 

Al excitedly nodded his head in response, “I can’t believe we are finally going to be able to see mom again!” He pulled Ed’s notes closer so he could reread every equation for what felt like the thousandth time. He already knew that they were all flawless though, not a single mistake in sight. “We will finally get to see her smile again, and I’ll give her the biggest hug possible!”

 

While he was nervous about the thought of reaching pass the barrier of death to try and retrieve their mother’s soul, he had complete faith in his brother’s certainty of the success of the experiment they were about to unfold. Everything about it was illegal of course, especially the use of quirks to try and raise the dead. But they only wanted to bring happiness back into their lives, was it so bad to want to see their mother alive and well? What was the harm in it anyway? The world will be better once she was back, and that’s the only thing that anyone wants. But adults were jealous, not wanting their precious rules to be broken. Nobody wants to be one-upped by a child. Ed said that they didn’t want kids using their quirks in such advanced ways because they were embarrassed about how powerful some of them can be. Laws were then put in place so kids don’t use their quirks to embarrass the adults.

 

So the brothers kept their plan secret, returning to their abandoned home to perform the experiment in the basement. Out of sight. Not even the Rockbell’s knew what him and his brother had been planning these past two years. Both brothers were torn on keeping it secret from Winry and grandma Pinako though, the last bit of family they had left. But they both knew that they would never understand why they had to do this. The world wasn’t _fair_ , so him and his brother would just have to make it fair.

 

Ed gathered the ingredients needed for the experiment from a storage box they hide down here a few days ago which contained every single item needed to create an adult, human body, measured painfully to smallest drop of water. Everything had to be perfect if this was experiment going to work, one mistake and they could cause more damage than they ever intended in ways that were unimaginable. They could even accidentally re-kill their mother if they were too careless. A horror that Al refused to dwell on for too long.

 

They could do this. They had practiced with their master for two years, they trained their quirks to gain the best control and push them to the limits, they went through everything together to get to this point. They _had_  to do this or else all that bone breaking training would have been for nothing.

 

Ed clapper his hands together, causing a metallic ring to echo in the dark, empty basement as the energy needed to activate his quirk exchanged between his two palms, “are you ready Al?”

 

Al felt his stomach summersalting non-stop, but couldn’t figure out if it was from unease or excitement, then settled on the fact that it was probably both, “I’m ready.”

 

Al placed a hand on Ed’s back, feeling his brothers raging soul flare around inside of him in excitement. His own reached out through his touch and connected to his brothers, as if the two forces were holding hands on a spiritual level. Once connected, Ed placed both hands onto the tin holding the ingredients to create the new body, sparks exploding from the pile the moment they made contact. Al watched in awe as the materials mixed and merged as they rose into the air, ignoring gravity as the light from the sparks covered the figure in shadows as it slowly rose up from the tin. “Now Al!”

 

Al immediately reacted to his cue, plunging his mind into the spiritual realm. He felt the presences of all the souls in the houses around him, each as unique as the individual they inhabited. He could even pinpoint Winry’s and Granny Pinako’s calmly resting in their rooms in the house next door. Then he pressed himself further, encountering the barrier that kept the living souls separated from the dead. He had practiced this before, all he had to do was push his head and arms through the barrier and drag out their mom’s soul. Any farther and he risked the chance of getting his own soul trapped on the other side.

 

The wall felt like cold jello as he plunged his arms into it, an icy chill sweeping up his arms and pressing into the core of his being as he pushed further. Once he had pushed his arms through as far as he could, he pressed his head through, a feat he had not tested until now. Despite the spiritual plane lacking the need to breathe, he couldn’t help the reaction of a sharp intake of breath as the cold pierced his face like tiny needles. 

 

Then he was through, opening his eyes to a blank, white field of nothing, blank outlines of figures filling the area as they seemed to be shuffling to no particular place for any particular reason. “Mom!” Al cried, catching the attention of a lone figure standing off to the side and away from the others. Nobody had any features, but this one figures reaction was enough for Al’s desperation to grab their mothers soul and pull away from this place as quickly as possible. He called again, “Mom!” Gaining another reaction from the same figure, who now lumbered forward, reaching for his outstretched hands. 

 

Warmth engulfed his freezing arms the moment their hands met, and Al had no doubt that this was her. With a tug, he pulled himself back through the barrier, pulling the spirit along with him with all the strength he could muster.

 

Then the spirit was through and his own soul snapped back into his body like a rubber band, reality hitting him hard with a wave of nausea once back in his physical body. He wavered before his brother caught him as his legs gave out from under him, carefully supporting him upright. “You did it Al! You got her!” Ed excitedly whispered in his ear, looking back towards their tin. Smoke filled the room from the reaction, keeping the figure they created shadowed by the dark the smoke yielded. Yet it was moving, all on its own. It was alive.

 

“M-mom!” Al felt tears prick his eyes as joy swelled in his chest, wanting to reach out and finally pull her in for a hug that he desperately craved. The figure stepped forward, but something wasn’t right about the way it moved. The joy quickly vanished and left newfound unease that didn’t quite fill the hole the joy left behind. “Ed, something isn’t right,” Al whispered, almost breathlessly as his unease grew and the hairs on the back of his neck rose.

 

“It’s fine! She’s back!” Ed seemed to deny as he continued to watch the figure take another, shifty step. “She’s just not used to being able to walk, give her moment!”

 

Each step it took was painfully slow, each foot brought forward being dragged along the paved floor almost too harshly. It created a horrible scuffing noise, as if the force of the dragging feet was rubbing off the skin against the rough surface of the floor. Al then realized that the interval hissing noises were not from the smoke that was now dispersing, but the breathing of the figure as if it just crawled up a mountain without any breaks. Al felt his body start shaking, his heart hammering in his chest for reasons still unknown. Something in the back of his mind nagged him to _run_ , to grab Ed and make a break for it to the door. 

 

Then he began to grasp the details of the figure, feeling suddenly dizzy as he finally understood what he was looking at. 

 

The figure wasn’t covered in shadows, it’s skin was pitch black with greasy patches of hair hanging off its head. It’s body lacked any fat, bones protruding through the skin and defining its entire skeleton. It lacked lips, shriveled up and exposing the rows of teeth it was meant to cover, its eyes sunken and hollow with only a small glint coming from within. It’s mouth opened rhythmically, a hoarse wheeze escaping each time its jaws parted. Al didn’t notice the tears staining his cheeks when all he could see where flashes of what their mother SHOULD look like on this… _thing_. 

 

His grip on Ed’s shirt tightened, fear squeezing its grip tighter around his throat as words failed to form. He could feel Ed shaking beside him, but couldn’t tear his own gaze away from the creature slowly approaching them. 

 

Ed finally broke the spell as was the first to find his voice, “I-... I don’t understand…” his voice was nothing more than a whisper as he spoke.  “This… this isn’t right…”

 

Al dug his fingers deeper into Ed’s back, his legs still weak from pushing his quirk so far to retrieve this soul, “brother… we have to go…” 

 

“All my calculations… everything should be perfect…” Ed continued to whisper as if he didn’t even hear Al. His fear was getting worse, the thing they created inched closer and closer, its breathing more and more aggressive the closer it got. 

 

“Ed!” Al whimpered, tugging Ed’s shirt in in horror as the thing stopped and opened its mouth wide, freezing for a few heart-stopping moments before bellowing a long winded, high pitched _shriek_ that felt like it could shatter glass.

 

This snapped Ed out of his daze as he jolted backwards from the piercing noise, hurriedly and roughly grabbing Al’s arm and turning to drag them both towards the door. This movement caused the creature to lock onto the two of them, barking out a hiss as it quickly switched from shuffling to tearing across the room, aiming straight for them.

 

Horrid, boney fingers reached towards them with long scraggly nails, the horribly _hissing_ it produced being the only thing that Al could hear over the blood rushing in his ears. In the split second before those hands could grab Ed, Al pushed his older brother as far as he could away from him, becoming the new target as the creature snatched him by the leg and pulled him screaming towards it. He could hear Ed’s voice screaming behind him as Al desperately tried to claw the leathery hands off his leg. It’s other hand reached up and wrapped around his chest and then began to  _ pull _ . 

 

A shriek exploded from him as pain enveloped him, frantically hitting and clawing at the hand around his chest instead as it just kept pulling. Then the pressure released and he was being tossed across the room, blood painting the creatures arm and creating a stark contrast to its dark skin. Ringing filled his ears, his head feeling like it was filled with cotton as he shakily pushed himself up from the ground. His right side felt too light, but he could wrap his head around as to  _ why _ .

 

He swept his gaze back to the creature he momentarily forgot about, his blood freezing when he saw Ed in its clutches, screaming and kicking in rage rather than fear. It grabbed his right arm, then began to pull like it did to him. Alphonse screamed in horror as he watched his older brothers arm be brutally torn from his body, the rest of him being tossed aside as the creature cried out in triumph. Anger tore through Al’s fear and pain, seeing this creature effortlessly tear apart his brother. His hands frantically pat the ground around him before landing on a piece of rubble, clutching onto the jagged stone and raising it over his head. With all the effort he could muster, he hurled it at the creature, hitting it right in the back of the head.

 

It jerked upright, then slowly turned around to lock its gaze on the trembling boy on the floor. A hiss broke through its grinding teeth before it dropped to all fours and threw itself at Alphonse at blinding speeds.

 

-

 

-

 

-

 

Roy kicked down the door as he heard more clatter coming from the house and still no answer to his knocking, narrowing his gaze as his eyes adjusted to the darkness within the abandoned home. They got a complaint about bright lights and loud noises coming from this abandoned home, and his boss thought he should take the job so he could focus on helping ‘the little people’. Though he knew he just wanted him to leave so he would stop digging through cold cases and demanding to take them and solve them. 

 

It was probably just some dumb teenagers playing with their quirks late at night so they wouldn’t get caught, which he will just give a slap on the wrist before sending them home and informing their parents of the dumb shit they were doing. Typical of teenagers thinking that they know everything.

 

More clatter came from the direction of stairs leading down, possibly to a basement. He glanced over to his partner, “stay up here and stand watch. If any kids come running up, stop them.”

 

Hawkeye nodded, then jolted when they both heard a scream come from the basement. Hawkeye pulled out her gun, expertly holding it close to her face as she looked to Roy for orders, which he held up a hand to indicate for her to stay as he edged towards the stairs. A dull thud mixed with more screaming came from the darkness, and Roy quickened his pace until he was storming down the stairs. He stopped at the closed door at the bottom, slamming against it and pressing an ear to the rotting wood.

 

This time he could pick up hissing, then a hoarse voice that was quickly cut off with the sound of something tearing and another dull thud. Quickly, he grabbed the knob and shoved the door open, ready to snap and aim his fire at a possible villain. What he was greeted with instead stopped him in his tracks.

 

Blood was the main thing that hit him first, the liquid covering different surfaces in different ways. Ranging from splatters to pools, and the smell of it hitting Roy like a brick wall, he guessed there was possibly more hidden by the darkness of the room. Some sort of … creature was hunched in the middle of it all, chewing on some sort of meat in long drawn out bites. When he saw the foot attached to the thing it was eating, he felt bile rise up his throat and threaten to spill out. He raised an arm instead, “You! Stop right there!” He ordered, anger flaring inside of him and building to a raging fire. _What_ _kind_ _of_ _sick_ _fuck_ _did_ _he_ _just_ _encounter_?

 

The thing turned its gaze to him, hollow eyes focusing on him as it dropped the leg and straightened up. It almost looked human, but everything else about it countered that point. It jerked, then shrieked as it threw itself at him.

 

Roy didn’t hesitate as he snapped his fingers, a spark forming from his fingertips and fire shot out at the thing that nearly reached him. His flames engulfed it, sending it to a stop as it screamed and clawed at its own, burning skin. Even as the fire quickly ate away at it, it still tried clawing its way towards him, but collapsed as it finally succumbed to his flames. Only when he was sure it was dead that he put out the flames. Burnt flesh replaced the smell of blood, reminding him too much of the horrors of his past. Looking away from the charred creature, nausea returned as he realized that some poor soul was probably in pieces and strewn across the room.

 

Swallowing the sickness threatening to return, he snapped a small bit of fire to properly light the room so he could finally see what kind of scene this creature left. 

 

The first thing he noticed was just how much blood there was, the darkness hiding the true nature of the scene. He spotted other limbs here and there, mutilated, torn apart, and too small to be adult limbs. 

 

Children… it killed _children_. 

 

He was ready to get out of the room, fully aware that this was going to haunt him for the next year when something croaked out behind him. 

 

“ _Please_ …” 

 

His blood ran cold as he turned around, eyes landing on a small blond child who looked back up at him with wide, desperate eyes. 

 

“He’ll die… _please_ _help_ _him_ …”

 

Roy then realize that the child was clinging to another child with one hand, hunched over him as if he was ready to use his body as a shield to protect the other.

 

Both children were drenched in blood. 

 

Roy snapped out of his daze, squatting next to the pair and realizing they were both still bleeding as the pools around them slowly continued to grow. The one that spoke then fell forward, which Roy was luckily fast enough to catch. Hot, sticky blood was the first thing he felt, and he knew he needed to act fast.

 

He grabbed each child with one arm, cradling them in the books of his arms as he dashed out of the basement and stormed up the stairs, snapping at Hawkeye as he ran past, “we need to go to the hospital NOW!” She barely missed a beat even with the surprise of seeing him with two bloody boys, racing past him and slamming the door shut as she slid into the driver's seat of the car and he dropped into the passenger side. They were speeding off with blaring sirens before Roy had fully closed his own door.

 

He looked down at the duo, noticing their similarities as well as their missing limbs that he probably was looking at earlier on the floor of that basement.

 

He hoped that they would last until they got to the hospital, that their will to live was as strong as the ones will to protect the other was.

 

Roy could tell that Hawkeye was desperate as well, swerving through traffic with ease and expertise, her eyes hard and focused. She barely glanced at the boys but Roy knew she saw enough and heard the panic in his voice. They couldn’t let them die.

 

Not today.

 

-

 

-

 

-

 

Pinako sat in the chair across from the boys beds, her mind numb as she couldn’t help but stare at the bandaged stumps they bore. How could she have been so blind?

 

She knew how much they were hurting after Trisha passed, and she wasn’t clueless when the boys suddenly became so secretive after Alphonse got his quirk. She should have seen it coming, should have realized that these two bright, brilliant boys would try to do something if they believed it would truly bring their sweet mother back. 

 

If that idiot Hohenheim never left, then maybe this would have never happened. They needed a parent in their life, and Edward never recovered from the night he saw him leave and disappear into the darkness of early morning. She thought they were learning to move on when they went to train with Uzami, that they were trying to focus on a new area of their lives.

 

She never predicted they would go as far as to try and find a way to bring her back. But she should have. The moment that Alphonse discovered his quirk that allowed the manipulation of a person’s soul so soon after her death, she should have guessed that those boys would try something like this. She should have done more for them.

 

Detective Mustang stepped into the room, stopping at the door when he noticed her sitting near the boys. His phone call still echoed in her ears, telling her they found the Elric boys near death in the basement of their old home and that they may not make it through the night. The first time she saw them like this she broke down, the doctors unable to save the limbs they lost. Neither of them will ever be able to walk without prosthetics, and Alphonse was predicted to have a major limp for the rest of his life based on the damage. They nearly bled to death and it was a miracle they were still fighting when the detectives made it to the hospital. This man saved their lives, and she was grateful.

 

Then he dropped it on her that it was possible that charges could be laid on the boys for illegal quirk use. 

 

Two young children, charged for making a mistake any child would make if given enough power to make it. And this detective told her they could face time in jail for it. Even after facing a punishment far worse.

 

“Are you here to tell me that you will be dragging these boys off even though they already bear permanent reminders of their mistakes?” Pinako asked, not bothering in hiding the anger in her voice. Detective Mustang shook his head, shoving his hands in his pockets as he walked farther into the room and glanced at the pair. Neither had woken up yet from the incident. 

 

“I wanted to tell you that there won’t be any serious legal action. The most that will happen is that there will be a closer eye placed on the boys.”

 

“You really believe they will try to do that  _ again _ ?” Pinako hissed. 

 

The detective squirmed under her glare, twisting his gaze to the wall instead of the boys. She forgot he witnessed firsthand the aftermath of the horror they went through. She didn’t see the scene in person, but she did see pictures. The worst was seeing the limbs detached from their owners, broken, torn apart, and unsalvageable. It took several hours for her to continue looking at the evidence in order to fully protect the brothers. 

 

“I personally doubt it. But the higher ups only see the thing they managed to create with their quirks. It’s the best we will ever get, better than locking them up for the rest of their lives,” he explained.

 

Pinako looked back at the boys, suddenly feeling a small amount of guilt for harassing the man that was doing what he could to allow the boys to keep their freedom, “... I appreciate it. Helping these boys… they are good, just… they just have become a little lost…” she sighed. 

 

Detective Mustang silently gazed back at the pair laying in the beds, then spoke lowly and with more emotion than she heard him speak with before, “I should have gotten there sooner.”

 

“Why does that matter?”

 

The detective looked over to her in surprise, “then I may have been able to save them before so much damage was caused.”

 

Pinako looked right at him with stone cold eyes, “we can’t change the past. These boys dug their hole, and all we can do now is throw down the rope and help pull them out.” 

 

The detective looked surprised by her words, then awkwardly shifted on the balls of his feet. 

 

They both nearly jumped when a new voice joined in, “Granny…?”

 

Pinako quickly looked back at the beds, locking eyes with Edward’s wide, fearful eyes.

 

“I-... I can’t feel them…” he whimpered, then slowly slid his gaze around the room before it landed on his brother next to him. “Al-!” His left hand tightly clutched the bedsheets as he stared at his brother. “It-it’s all my fault. I-I did this.” Pinako remained silent as he spoke, her heart cracking as she saw this headstrong boy so broken. “His- his leg-“

 

Pinako couldn’t let him continue like this, “Edward.”

 

He jolted, looking over to her, his eyes watery and dull, “Granny… I-I’m sorry… I thought-...” his shaking grew worse. “I thought we could-... it tore off his leg. I couldn’t do anything. He- he tried to stop it and it attacked him again.” Edward ducked his head down , as if trying to curl up in a ball. “I never want to use my quirk again.”

 

“And what use will that do?”

 

Edward jolted as the detective stepped in, not moving as Pinako shot a glare. What the hell was he doing? “Let him be-“ Pinako began before the detective sauntered over and stood in front of Edwards bed.

 

“You think never using your quirk again will right the wrongs you did?” Edward flinched with each word. He was overstepping, Edward just woke up and now this detective was pushing into areas that needed to heal first. “Those mistakes are permanent. So why don’t you think about what you can do now instead of what you shouldn’t do?” Detective Mustang blocked Pinako’s view of Edward, the pair sharing a drawn out stare before the detective turned and walked out the door.

 

Her feelings about that man were definitely mixed, but when she looked back to Edward, his eyes had changed. While the horror and pain still remained, familiar, burning determination was now mixed in.

 

It was a long road to recovery.

 

But she had a feeling that they will make it.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The entrance exams roll around and the boys decide to take them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m glad everyone is enjoying this crossover so far! I certainly am enjoying it :D!
> 
> I especially can’t wait until Ed and Bakugou meet. You better bet it’s going to be... explosive.
> 
> BAHDUMTSK!

Ed and Al stepped up the stairs leading to the entrance of the hall hosting the orientation of the practical exams, both having just finished the written proportion. It was honestly child’s play, the questions were simple and easy to solve. Ed expected  _ better _ from the most exclusive school in Japan and now had lower expectations for the practical exams. Maybe this was where they truly rooted out the best of the best? Anyone could pick an answer for the written proportion, but how many can truly prove they have the skills in high pressured scenarios? 

 

Al seemed to almost be jumping out of skin as he barely managed his excitement, which Ed couldn’t really blame him. It took a lot of letters and tests to convince the school to enroll Al in the program despite being 2 years younger than most of the students. But the brothers had been studying together for their entire life, being homeschooled since the incident, they basically learned everything together. While Al did need help from time to time, he was still able to keep up with Ed in discussing principles and theories. He deserved to enroll in this just as much as Ed did.

 

His largest concern though was Al’s limp, the only physical disadvantage his brother had among the rest of the students here. Though the concern wasn’t too large since he also regularly physically spared with Al and knew that even with the disadvantage, he could easily hold his own. They would both pass this test with flying colours and enter the hero program! From there, they would train their quirks to their absolute top potential and Ed may even learn to find a way to make new, organic limbs that could be re-attached instead of metal synthetic ones. 

 

Ed turned his gaze back at the school, this was their chance to gain the resources they needed to reach their goal. And he knew without a doubt they would both be getting in.

 

Just ahead of them, some kid with a tangled mess of fluffy green hair had stopped as some other pale blonde kid shoved past him. After a few moments, he went to take a step forward with newfound determination. Only his left foot hooked his right leg and he sent himself falling forward from the fatal mistake. Al squawked beside him as he witnessed this dumbass trip over his own feet and Ed couldn’t help but kneel over as he wheezed with laughter. Luckily for the other kid, a girl managed to catch him with some sort of floating quirk before his nose was reduced to a flattened, bloody smear on his face. When Ed finally managed to glance back over to Al between wheezes, he noticed his younger brother had taken a few steps forward as if to help with the aftermath, but was now wearing an expression of relief. “Come on, Al! That was hilarious! Heck, if he’s our competition we will get in EASILY! He can’t even walk right!”

 

Al huffed, crossing his arms as seemed to start up another lecture, “He could have been hurt, Ed! He’s probably just nervous, these exams determine if we get in the school or not! Stress is high!”

 

“Gotta learn that stress can’t hinder his performance! Or else he’s going to be a really crappy hero!” Ed wheezed loud enough for people around him to hear. “Come on, we should find our seats before they become impossible to reach, I want to see what this prestigious school has planned for the practical entrance exams!” 

 

Al lingered slightly as he watched the kid who can’t seem to walk properly stare after the girl that caught him, then picked up his pace to catch up with Ed as they entered the building together. They weren’t here for friends, they were here to learn what they needed and move to the top. They probably won’t cross paths with most of these other people ever again anyway. So there was no point in making friends at this point since they were all about to compete for the limited spots available for the hero course. Not that it would stop Al from dropping everything to help someone.

 

Forget his limp, his empathy will be the thing that keeps him from flawlessly passing this exam.

 

The pair picked their ways through the crowds to their seats in the auditorium, hundreds of potential students already having seated and excitedly chattering to their neighbours. Some people they passed gave both Ed and Al surprised glances before turning back to their conversations, the subject slightly changed as they questioned the possibility of twins entering the exam. Ed already felt the twinge of anger sparking inside of him, he was the OLDER brother, was that so hard to see? Al snickered beside him, noticing his annoyance as he leaned over, “maybe if you drank your milk, you would be taller than me.” 

 

Ed quickly snapped his head around, his voice a wheezing whisper of held back rage, “that garbage fluid has nothing to do with my height, and I AM taller than you!”

 

Al shrugged, “sure, by a  _ millimeter _ .”

 

Ed hissed as he tried throwing himself at his brother, who laughed and shoved him back. Milk was the devil’s drink and Al knew it! He would be tall one day! Taller than everyone in this room! Even taller than All Might!

 

Once they found their seats, they sat and watched the stage for activity. Then Al twisted and started to excitedly go through theories of what the exams will be based on previous years.

 

“The school itself can do almost anything since it’s funding is through the roof! They have off campus facilities and even some rumoured,  _ secret _ facilities for  _ secret _ training!” Al grinned, tapping through the notes on his phone. “Almost everything includes robots, but I can’t seem to find anything about these robots. They could range in size, power, and purpose! Not to mention that the school may even look for specific traits instead of just power levels during the entrance exam! One year, pro heroes actually fought the students and the ones who showed the most potential got in!”

 

“Whatever they throw at us, we will punch in the face and plow through to the top!” Ed said smugly as he leaned back in his seat, putting his feet up on the back of the seat from the person in front of him. The person barely noticed though, hunched over in their seat as they mumbled under their breath. 

 

“We have to think of the big picture, brother! What if they aren’t just looking for raw strength?” Al tilted his head.

 

“Then it’s their lost! Being hero may be about saving people and finding clever ways to make sure the least amount of damage is done. But at the end of the day, power is something that every hero needs if they want to succeed!” Ed smirked. “And we both have that power! I’d like to see if any of these idiots can compare to our quirks!”

 

Al shook his head, almost disapprovingly, but Ed barely noticed as the lights dimmed and the orientation began. Blinding spotlight snapped on and lit up a lone figure standing in the middle of the stage below. Ed lazily raises an eyebrow as he noticed that the figure was the only thing on the stage, no microphone or speakers in sight. How was this guy going to explain what was going on to the people in the very back?

 

Then he noticed the blond hair, styled out and up that reminded him of a cockatiel and realized too late that he was not prepared for the onslaught of sound that exploded from the stage. 

 

“ **HEY THERE FUTURE U.A STUDENTS!! ARE YOU READY TO ROCK** ?”

 

The pure force of the sound exploding through the auditorium rattled Ed to the bones as he thrashed and fell out of his seat from his unprepared position. He took the moment of silence from the Pro Hero to settle his chattering teeth and drag himself back into his seat in a more sturdy position. When the ringing faded from his ears he twisted a glare at Al as he realized his brother was  _ laughing  _ at his fall. “Hey that’s not funny!” Ed hissed through clenched teeth, pretty sure that his brain was still bouncing around his skull. 

 

“It is when you called some kid stupid for tripping over his own feet. It’s called Karma, brother,” Al grinned.

 

“Oh, shut up!” Ed huffed as he slouched aggressively in his seat and crossed his arms, turning his attention back to the stage and the disappointed Present Mic who tried and failed to get some participation from the audience. 

 

“ **WELL. THAT’S DISAPPOINTING. MIGHT AS WELL GET RIGHT TO THE POINT THEN** ,” Present Mic shrugged, his voice no longer as piercing as before. “ **YOU ALL HAVE SHEETS GIVEN TO YOU FROM THE WRITTEN EXAM, WHICH ALL INDICATE THE TESTING GROUND YOU WILL BE PARTICIPATING IN, AS WELL AS A SIMPLIFIED VERSION OF WHAT I’M ABOUT TO EXPLAIN** !”

 

Ed pulled out his crumpled sheet, checking the bolded letter in the corner indicating which zone he would be tested in. His was listed as zone ‘B’, and he leaned over to check Al’s much more nicely kept paper and spotted his was zone ‘C’. He was slightly disappointed that they wouldn’t be able to work together, but at the same time he somewhat expected it to be like this. It would be slightly unfair if large groups worked together to rack up points and this encourages individual dependence on their own power. 

 

“ **ALL OF YOU WILL BE PUT IN AN ARTIFICIAL CITY BEING OVERRUN BY ROBOTIC VILLAINS! THERE ARE THREE LEVELS OF ROBOTS THAT HAVE DIFFERENT POINT AMOUNTS BASED ON THEIR DIFFICULTY TO DISPATCH! WE HAVE 1 POINTERS, 2 POINTERS, AND 3 POINTERS ALL LABELLED ON YOUR SHEETS** !” The same kid that was mumbling before started mumbling again in front of him. “ **YOUR JOB IS TO DISPATCH AS MANY OF THOSE ROBOTS AS POSSIBLE USING EITHER YOUR QUIRK OR PERSONAL SKILLS AND RACK UP AS MANY POINTS AS POSSIBLE** !” 

 

Alright, destroy robots. That should be easy enough. There should probably be more to the test than just destroying robots though, right?

 

Silence filled the dark auditorium, then Present Mic leaned forward, “ **THAT’S IT! DESTROY ALL THE ROBOTS YOU CAN AND GET THE HIGHEST SCORE** !” He has to be fucking kidding. That was it?!

 

“Excuse me! I have a question!” Someone called from behind. Ed twisted his head as a spotlight shone on the very square looking kid, his posture almost robotic as he wore a very intense expression. 

 

“ **SURE. ASK AWAY** !” 

 

“On the sheet, there are  **_four_ ** robots listed when you only mentioned  **_three_ ** . Is it some sort of typo because that would be  **_very_ ** unprofessional!”

 

Jeez this kid could probably walk into a business building and be crowned CEO the moment he opened his mouth.

 

“ **WHAT AN EXCELLENT QUESTION! NO! IT’S NOT A TYPO! AND YOU WILL BE SEEING IT DURING THE EXAM! BUT IT'S WORTH ZERO POINTS SO JUST IGNORE IT ONCE IT SHOWS UP** !”

 

“Thank you!” The kid suddenly twisted and pointed past Ed. “And you! Stop mumbling it’s unprofessional and distracting!” The mumbling kid squeaked and seemed to try and make himself as small as possible when dark heads all turned to look at him. The robot kid then dipped into a perfect 90 degree bow, “That is all!” Then he sat back down. 

 

It took a second for Ed to realize that the mumbling kid was the same one who tripped on his own feet just earlier! Damn, it was not his day today. 

 

“ **WELL IF THAT’S IT THEN GOOD LUCK FUTURE U.A STUDENTS! GATHER ON YOUR LABELLED BUS AND YOU WILL BE ABLE TO CHANGE AT THE ZONES! I HOPE TO SEE YOU ALL DO YOUR VERY BEST! YEEAAAHHH!!!** ”

 

-

 

-

 

-

 

Alphonse quickly fell into a routine warm up, stretching each joint carefully to make sure his body was loose and any possibility of his joints locking up falling to a minimal. He made sure to oil his automail (and reminded Ed to oil his) so they wouldn’t cause any issues either during the exam. He had carefully chosen his workout clothes to cover his metal limbs yet not cause any problems like overheating or catching on any bits sticking out and limiting his movement. (Though Winry was really good at making her family’s special automail so that it was already flawless and smooth.)

 

He casually looked around as he continued his stretches, checking out the competition and trying to pinpoint the more obvious quirks he may have to avoid if he wants to snatch the most points in the least amount of time. He didn’t know what kind of strategy these other kids had, but he had been planning and poking holes through his own. He can easily jump into objects and people, and with robots he just has to identify the easiest way to destroy them from the inside. The only issue was that his body tends to ragdoll the moment the entirety of his soul leaves it, but if he could time it right he can use that. He hasn’t perfected the technique yet, but it may be the best way to pass this exam.

 

Someone started yelling and he turned to see a kid with spiky blonde hair boasting about how everyone was trash and that he was going to win. Al didn’t believe it was possible but this guy seemed to be more arrogant than Ed. He then set off explosions from his palms as if to intimidate the other students.

 

Instead Al made a mental note to go the  _ opposite _ direction of him so he wouldn’t have to worry about robots being snatched from him by a kid who’s quirk seemed to be made for this exam. The only issue with this though was that he doubted that he would be the only one with this idea.

 

He had to be quick, and smart. Other kids could outrun him like this, but all he had to do was analyze the initial start and pick the best path and hope that robots were down that way.

 

Present Mic’s face suddenly appeared on the large screen at the entrance, but that didn’t affect the volume of his voice as it exploded across the crowd. “ **ARE YOU READY LISTENERS? GET READY IN 3! 2! 1!** ” An alarm blared even louder than Present Mic (was that even possible?) and all the candidates were running. Al watched the explosive blonde run for the first robots he saw, slamming his palms against the metal and reducing them to scrap in seconds. Al quickly scanned the crowds that swarmed the largest groups of robots, but Al wasn’t looking for them right away. He instead headed deeper into the artificial city, spotting untouched robots and feeling a grin spread across his face. In order to be a hero, he had to think like one. And a hero can’t focus on just what’s in front of their face, but the bigger picture. 

 

He picked up his pace, the robots jolting to light once he was within a few feet. Al lunged forward, pulling away from his body and slipping into the robots. All he had to do was loosen a few gears and slip back into his own body just as he was falling forward so he could catch himself and take another step. He couldn’t help the glee that bloomed in his chest as his trick worked without a hitch, the robot sputtering before it dropped to the ground behind him. He repeated the trick as he continued forward, jumping into robots, messing with the circuits within and jumping back into his body before it hit the ground. He stumbled a few times but always managed to catch himself.

 

He even managed to snatch some robots from other competitors, causing confusion as he seemed to just run by and the robots immediately broke down. 

 

He was feeling pretty amazing until what felt like an earthquake threw him off and sent him falling to the ground with a thud! He glanced around in surprise as the rumbling continued, then sputtered out a squeak of surprise when the zero pointer slowly shoved it’s enormous head around the corner, crumbling buildings with massive metal claws. Al shook himself out of his shock and scrambled to his feet as kids around him screamed in terror and raced past him. Rubble from the buildings around him dropped from the sky like meteors and Al struggled to keep himself from being hit by one of them. 

 

Someone behind him screamed before it was abruptly cut off, and he turned his head to see something collapse. He couldn’t help but stop and search the grounds behind him, unable to find anyone behind him. He did hear a scream though, didn’t he? 

 

The robot was getting closer and he was worried that he was just hearing things when he spotted red coming from something he couldn’t see.

 

No… wait… someone he couldn’t see! 

 

He finally managed to spot clothes that seemed to be filled, reaching out he even managed to spot a finicky soul attached to them. The person was  _ invisible _ ! 

 

Nobody saw them get hit, and that giant robot was coming straight for them, they were going to be crushed!

 

He quickly changed direction, running for the fallen student and dropping next to them. Thankfully, there didn’t seem to be a lot of blood but it was impossible to tell just how bad it was when the person was completely invisible. They had long sleeves on so he was able to locate their arm and sling it over his shoulder, lifting them and half running, half dragging them from the robot. His limp wasn’t helping them and the giant one pointer was quickly gaining on them, he debated taking over the person's body but knew his own body was much heavier because of the metal. He couldn’t turn and take over the giant robot behind them because he knew he couldn’t stop a robot of that size, at most he could slow it down. He needed help.

 

He could still see kids within yelling distance and knew that someone had to come help. “Hey! Hey!! I need help back here!”

 

A few turned around in surprise, but then their eyes trailed back up to the zero pointer and shot apologetic looks before continuing to run. The explosive blonde even spat at them, screaming that he didn’t help weaklings.

 

Al hissed under his breath, what kind of heroes did these people hope to be? Rubble hit the back of his left leg he stumbled forward, heart pounding in horror as he huffed in pain. He tried standing up again but only succeeded in stumbling forward again. Unable to support the weight of himself and the invisible person, he was reduced to being caught between a crouch and a kneel, the back of his leg stinging with pain.

 

He was getting ready to just jump out of his body and try to destroy the robot before it crushed them when an orange haired girl skidded in front of them, “what happened? Did you get hit?” Al couldn’t explain his relief that somebody responded to his call.

 

“Yes, the back of my leg. I can’t hold them and walk anymore!” He huffed in pain.

 

“Them-?” Her eyes trailed to the invisible person he clung to-, “oh my god, I didn’t even see them!”

 

Al heard another crash as the robot crept even closer, and Al realized that even if she could run with both of them, they wouldn’t be able to get away in time. He sharply turned to the girl, “I need to know if you can carry both of us? I know it’s asking a lot but if you can, I may be able to slow this robot down before it can crush us!”

 

Her face twisted in confusion, “how can you do that when you can’t even walk?”

 

“Trust me, now can you?” Al insisted.

 

Her hands swelled into enormous fists, “I can!”

 

Al nodded, “good!”

 

Then his body dropped as he slipped out of it and into the zero pointer. He stretched his soul to every gear, every plate, and every screw, then  _ pulled.  _ He felt the robot stutter under his hold, fighting back as it tried to press forward. Looking through the robots glass lens, he spotted a flash of orange running away from him, her massive hands curled around hidden figures. He couldn’t let go just yet, instead he searched the robot, forcing gears out of place and pulling any wires he could without letting go of his hold on the robots basic mobility function. There was too much though, all the small things he pulled out not enough damage to stop it. He could feel his soul straining to stay within it, to hold it back.

 

Then the finishing horn blared and the robot immediately shut down, too suddenly though as Al was still trying to hold it back and instead sent it falling backwards and causing way more damage than he originally intended. 

 

He slipped out of the robot, and quickly made sure it didn’t fall on anyone. Which everyone was well away out of it’s range so he managed to get lucky. Once he was sure everyone was safe, he glided back to his own body and sat up with a gasp, terrifying the orange haired girl who was trying to wake him up. “Oh thank god, you’re alive! The medics had no idea what was wrong with you and I thought you must’ve gotten hit or I squeezed you too tight-!”

 

Al quickly cut her off before she began to panic too much, “it’s fine! It’s just part of my quirk! How about that invisible person? Are they ok?” 

 

A voice piped up beside him and he jumped in surprise, “I’m fine! Just a small cut on my head is all! They don’t know if I have a concussion so they said just to be careful and have someone keep me from sleeping for too long.”

 

“I’m glad to hear it,” Al smiled. “I almost missed you, too. That quirk of yours is incredible, but that was a close call.”

 

The invisible student laughed, “yeah, I wish I could turn it on and off. As a child I had to wear a bracelet with a bell on it so my parents wouldn’t trip over me! Kendo told me that you found me and tried to drag me to safety, so thank you! You could have just ran like everyone else but you ran back to help me!” She seemed to bow based on how her shirt bent forward. “I owe you my life!”

 

Al couldn’t help the blush flush his cheeks as he awkwardly stuttered over his words, “y-you really don’t! It’s ju-just something anyone will do! You should really thank- uh, Kendo was it? She’s the one who carried us to safety!”

 

“But you spotted me! And I’m really hard to spot! So thank you!” She bowed again. “Oh here I go speaking without introducing myself!” She exclaimed, the movement of his sleeves indicating she slapped her hands against her face. “My name is Toru Hagakure!”

 

“Ah! My name is Alphonse Elric, but everyone calls me Al!”

 

“Since we are exchanging names, mine is Itsuka Kendo,” Kendo introduced herself. 

 

Al grinned, “well it’s nice to meet you all!”

 

Kendo leaned forward worriedly, “Are you sure you’re ok then, Al? You kind of just… dropped and you felt incredibly limp. I couldn’t even wake you up after the exam ended.”

 

“I’m fine, like I said, it’s just part of my quirk!” Al tried to ease her worries. 

 

“What about your leg?” Kendo asked.

 

Al forgot about that, looking down and noticing that the back of his pants were now stained red.

 

“I may need a bandaid for that one.”

 

-

 

-

 

-

 

Ed felt a few cracks break free from his back as he twisted side to side, hands on his hips and following his routine warm-up. He spotted that green haired kid a distance away from him, standing unnaturally straight up and rigid. Ed could even see the massive amount of sweat dripping off his face, it looked like a gentle breeze could easily knock him over at any moment. Then the kid who called him out during the orientation tapped him on the shoulder and he nearly shot himself 3 feet into the air before whipping around in shock.

 

He doubted that kid would get in, everything about him screamed meek, and Ed didn’t know any meek heroes off the top of his head. If he wanted to show off his potential, he would have to swallow his fear and face this head on.

 

Though it didn’t look like that would happen anytime soon.

 

He stretched his legs next, his metal one not creaking thanks to Al’s reminder to oil it before they left the house. 

 

The screens next to the zone entrance blinked to life, showing a very close shot of Present Mic’s face at a massive size. Ed learned quickly to slap his hands over his ears as the Pro Hero literally shrieked into the microphone. “ **ARE YOU READY LISTENERS? GET READY IN 3! 2! 1!** ” The horn blared even louder than the hero’s voice, but Ed barely noticed as he lunged forward, clapping his hands together as a sly smirk spread across his face. 

 

He felt the familiar buzz of energy exchange between his palms before slamming them onto the ground, then felt each particle of the earth buzz with the energy as he began to mould it to his will. People around him cried out in shock as the ground sparked and pulled into a wave of cement and stone, pushing Ed ahead of the entire group without wasting much energy. Springing off the cascading cement, he easily fell into a roll and charged up another set of energy which he taped a hand against the closest robot he landed next to. Metal bent to his will as more sparks exploded from the reaction, the robot twisted into a mass of metal spikes that shot out and destroyed multiple surrounding robots at once. He could feel the adrenaline coursing through his veins, he never got to let loose like this against something that was somewhat a challenge! The closest he would ever get to fully unleashing his quirk was finding abandoned areas in the city and seeing just what he could make and how fast he could make it. This though, this required quick thinking and awareness of his surroundings. He had to be careful not to actually catch any other student in the crosshairs, but that all just added to the challenge. 

 

People behind him groaned in annoyance when they spotted the destruction he left behind, most likely annoyed with the fact that he was somewhat hogging the robots. That was fine with Ed, they would just avoid him and look for robots elsewhere and that meant less people to keep an eye out for.

 

Running alongside a building, a spotted a row of robots up ahead, a new idea sparked to life and he cackled as he clapped his hands together and dragged the one along the side of the building. Pillars of cement shot out of the building behind him, each one slamming a robot into the opposite building and crushing them upon impact. Oh, how he must look like a madman, cackling as he effortlessly destroyed these piles of scrap! He felt like a madman. 

 

But that was just fine by him. 

 

He went to go after another targeted robot, but was cut off as someone flashed past him and dug their heels into the robots face, crushing it from the force alone. He jolted his head up in surprise and recognized the robot kid, then grinned as he reacted before the kid to reach his next target, destroying the robot with spiked cement before the robot kid could even jump to deliver another kick. It was his turn to spin around in surprise, which Ed threw back the biggest shit-eating grin possible. The kid huffed, pressed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, then disappeared in a cloud of dust. Looks like his competition has more potential than he original thought, he spotted robots floating before they crashed to the ground, others before torn violently apart, and even a very bright beam shooting across the battlefield.

 

As exciting as this all was, Ed pressed on, snatching robots right from underneath his competitions nose and getting deeper and deeper into the city until he was the only person amongst a whole bunch of robots.

 

After an exciting destructive roll of destroying the surrounding robots, he found himself standing amongst rubble. All active robots either being somewhere else or having just been destroyed seconds ago. He was ready to send himself flying to the other side of the city in hopes of catching more of these moving scrap piles when the earth beneath him shook violently, knocking him to the ground as he was unable to steady himself. “What the hell-“ Ed stuttered as he turned around, freezing as he saw a HUGE ASS ROBOT FUCKING RISING OUT OF THE GROUND MERE FEET AWAY FROM HIM.

 

He scrambled away from it and stumbled to his feet, not about to wait around and watch this thing rise up and start fucking moving because he really didn't feel like being crushed at a goddamn entrance exam. Damn, the teachers must be CRAZY to sick something this big on a bunch of fucking teenagers! 

 

He ran as fast as he could, getting ready to charge up another wave of cement to get him out of there faster and avoid getting a concussion from all the pieces of building that the robot was dropping. Then someone called out with a weird ass accent, “Excuse me, mon ami!” He paused, the robot forgotten as he slowly turned to the source of the voice, locking eyes with some blond kid who seemed to be…  _ sparkling _ . Damn, he didn't know Armstrong had a kid. “I seem to have found myself in a… pickle.” Ed trailed his gaze over the kid, then noticed his right shoulder did not look normal. 

 

“You accidently dislocate your shoulder?” Ed asked, running over and watching the robot inch closer out of the corner of his eye, more rubble dropping around them at alarming amounts.

 

The kid nodded, “Zee pain, I am too dizzy to run and my tummy really hurts.”

 

“Your… fuck it. Let’s go before we get crushed!” Ed decided to figure out what to make of his ‘tummy’ hurting later, right now they had to get out of here. “Link your good arm around my neck, we’ll pop that shoulder back in once we can get a good enough distance away from that thing!”

 

Thankfully this sparkle kid was really good at listening and they were off running in seconds. Once Ed brought up enough momentum, he clapped his hands together and created the wave of pavement that carried them away from the robot at extreme speeds. Though, the kid squealed in his ear as soon as they took off, and it took all of Ed’s willpower not to drop him immediately after. He could feel exhaustion beginning to creep up on the edges of his vision as his pushed his quirk for such an extended amount of time, so he let go of his hold on the pavement and leapt forward, landing with grace and skidding to a stop facing the giant zero pointer a safe distance away from anymore falling buildings. “That power of yours in incredible!” The kid squealed, which Ed took the moment to drop him on some flat-ish stones so he could get a look at his shoulder. 

 

Before he could get started though, a small amount of movement caught the corner of his eye and he turned his head to see someone jumping right at the face of the robot. That guy did realize that thing was worth nothing, right?

 

Then within a blink of an eye, the face of that robot crushed into itself and it went falling backwards in a wave of explosions and smoke. Ed stared in disbelief, unable to figure out what the hell he just witnessed as the person then fell to the ground and disappeared behind the buildings. “Did… did you see that too?” Ed asked the sparkling kid (how the fuck was he doing that??). 

 

His paled face answered Ed’s question, and he shook his head. That was some insane power, and he had no doubt that whoever delivered that blow was going to get into U.A. 

 

A horn blared, indicating the end of the exam. He turned back to sparkle kid, “do you think you can last through that shoulder a bit longer? I have a feeling there will be some medical teams that specialize in this kind of thing.”

 

“Will you do that road surfing thing again?” The kid perked up.

 

“Do you want me to do the road surfing thing?” 

 

“Oui!”

 

-

 

-

 

-

 

Ed and Al scrambled to the door in a mad dash as Pinako announced they each had letters from U.A. Even Winry had a letter, which she made it known that hers was the first priority as she slammed the brothers into the wall and snatched her letter before leaping over their crumpled bodies and scurrying to the kitchen with a squeal. While this would usually end in a hissy fit from Ed, they were both too excited about their own letters to care, leaping back to their feet to retrieve their own letters. While Ed simply snatched his letter and dashed to his room, Al politely asked for his and retrieved it with a smile from Pinako before he chased after his brother. They both promised to open their letters together, gathering in Ed’s room and closing their door to keep it a surprise. Ed grinned as he shook his letter, “this is it Al! Our acceptance letters!” 

 

Al playfully punched his brothers shoulder, “you don't know that! You could have been disqualified for being a powerhouse!”

 

“Me? A powerhouse? You didn’t see the kid that took down a zero pointer with one HIT! If anyone is going to be disqualified for being overqualified, it’s that kid!” Ed sneered. “So who goes first?” 

 

“You should big brother, mine is more likely to be declined and I really want to keep you on the edge of your seat!” Al grinned.

 

“Why the hell would you say that? You destroyed LOTS of robots!” Ed exclaimed.

 

“Yeah, but my quirk isn’t really easy to pinpoint for people watching!” 

 

“Al, if those people can’t figure out that your power destroyed those robots, then this school doesn’t deserve you,” Ed grinned. 

 

Al punched him again in the shoulder, “don’t go soft with me, brother!”

 

“Fine! Fine! Let’s see if I got in!” Ed tore the envelope open and dropped a small round device on the table, which looked a lot like a bulky coaster. Both Ed and Al leaned in close in confusion then pulled back with a yelp when a blue-tinged holoscreen popped up and All Might’s booming voice filled the room.

 

“YOUNG ELRIC! IT IS I! ALL MIGHT!” 

 

“What the fuck-“ Edward began before holographic All Might cut him off. 

 

“You are a brilliant young lad, your score on the written exam being a perfect score! As for the practical!” All might paused for a longer time than was necessary, “YOU ALSO DID BRILLIANTLY! You managed to rack up 68 points! Good job! But you may not have realized but that was not the only thing the judges were looking for!” Al and Ed exchanged a confused glance then turned their attention back to the message as All Might continued. “We also were looking for qualities of a hero! Hence RESCUE POINTS! You went out of your way to save another who asked for help and upon doing so you earned TEN RESCUE POINTS! ADDING UP TO A TOTAL OF 78 POINTS! This earned you the TOP SCORE OF THE ENTRANCE EXAMS! HUZZAH! I WILL SEE YOU AT THE BEGINNING OF THE SCHOOL YEAR! ALL MIGHT, AWAY!” Ed and Al blinked as the holographic screen disappeared and the room fell into silence, then Ed slid Al a smug grin as he crossed his arms. 

 

“Hear that Al? I was top of the entrance exams! The very best! I told you it would be easy!” He sneered.

 

Al rolled his eyes, “by one point! Some kid under you got 77 points alone from destroying robots. No rescue points at all!”

 

“Bah, whoever he is, I’m sure I could beat him!”

 

“Brother you are going to choke on all that smug pride if you aren’t careful!”

 

Ed coughed and scrambled to change the subject, “Well let's see how well you did!”

 

A grin spread across Al’s face as he leaned forward and snatched his own envelope, tearing it open with little care and excitedly bouncing on the balls of his feet as the disk sputtered to life. He forgot about the initial volume though as All Mights exploded throughout the the room once more, unable to suppress a squeak of surprise. “YOUNGER ELRIC! IT IS I! ALL MIGHT!” All Might exclaimed with the same amount of enthusiasm as he used in Ed’s. “While many doubted you, you pushed past their expectations and passed the written exam with flying colours! I believe one of the teachers spat out their coffee when marking the exam! As for your final practical exam score!” All Might paused just like he did for Ed, only… he seemed a bit strained about it. “We had to bring in some specialists to determine just how many robots you destroyed. Admittedly, your power isn’t as showy as others and it’s especially difficult when all we can see is robots malfunctioning once you ran past. BUT! UPON CLOSER INSPECTION WE DISCOVERED WHICH ROBOTS YOU SHUT DOWN BASED ON HOW YOU SHUT THEM DOWN! EVERYONE WAS VERY IMPRESSED!” Al released a breath he had been holding, his greatest worry was that the judges wouldn’t believe he did anything at all! “You earned a fancy 41 points! And that’s not all! The judges weren’t just looking for physical fitness but also HERO QUALITIES! Such as helping your competition! You managed to spot another student being left behind and risked your life to go back and help her! While you may not have been able to save her fully yourself after being injured, you continued to help by ASKING for help! A great hero recognizes when they need help, and aren’t afraid to ask for it! Your rescue score…”

 

Al inched closer to the hologram.

 

“25 POINTS!!” All Might exclaimed as he did a small spin. “ADDING UP TO 66 POINTS! YOU DID IT YOUNG MAN! YOU MADE IT INTO U.A! I WILL BE SURE TO MEET YOU AT THE BEGINNING OF THE SCHOOL YEAR! ALL MIGHT, AWAY!” The disk turned off, and Al stood completely frozen before exhaling loudly and falling into his chair.

 

Ed laughed at his over dramatic reaction, “were you really so worried?”

 

Al heaved in heavy breathes, “I can’t help it! It’s nearly impossible to get into just a normal high school at my age, but U.A? I was sure they were going to stamp a label on my head saying ‘baby’ and tell me to go back to middle school!”

 

“Bah! If they did that, I would personally storm into the principal's office and slap some sense into them!” Ed grinned.

 

“You would PUNCH some sense into them, brother.”

 

“EXACTLY! That’s much more efficient!”

 

Al laughed as his brother then fell into explaining in great detail just how he would punch that sense into the principle, complete with swears and large hand movements.   
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick note: I had to figure out an equivalent of Ed trying to get back what they lost, hence the idea of him creating new limbs with his quirk. While it may seem somewhat counterproductive, but it’s more or less an idea of restoring their limbs. Not bringing back the dead. 
> 
> Of course, both boys still will have some buried guilt relating to their quirks that can and WILL be revealed later. For now it’s good feels though.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Elric brothers attend their first day of classes at UA.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now we get to witness some tension!

Izuku stared at the door to his classroom. Room 1-A. His homeroom. At U.A. The top hero school in all of Japan. And he managed to make it in!

 

Anxiety creeped around his mind before he reached the handle to open it, was this going to be exactly like middle school? Everyone siding with Kacchan as they ignore and bully him? The teacher ignoring his taunts, outbursts, and general abuse because their pay isn’t enough to deal with it? Will nothing change as he walks home alone, studies alone, and just have to deal with another 3 years alone?

 

He squashed those thoughts down, no. No this was different now. He had a quirk. He had a goal. And he was going to ACHIEVE that goal! He wouldn’t be Kacchan’s punching bag any longer! He was strong now! And he will get even stronger each and every day until he surpassed Kacchan!

 

Yes! 

 

Today was the day that he was going to talk him down!

 

Izuku opened the door before he could second guess himself, stepping into the room with newfound determination to prove himself worthy to Kacchan and his peers. What he was met with was loud screaming and cursing that was all too familiar, and he was quite tempted to just close the door and leave Japan on the next plane to anywhere. 

 

Kacchan screaming, he could easily deal with. Kacchan was just like that. But the problem there was another kid screaming BACK at him with the equal amount of aggressive and volume. Then there was ANOTHER kid trying to talk them both down from the desks they were standing on as they screamed at each other. It was clear that both boys were ignoring the third if they could even hear him over their own blaring strings of cursing and insults.

 

“Hey! You made it!” A girl cried as she danced to his side. He couldn’t help the smile spread across his face as he recognized her from the entrance exam.

 

“So did you! Are you ok now? Those chunks of cement looked pretty heavy and I don’t know how much force was behind them when they fell on you so you could’ve had anything from a fraction to your bone snapping and-“

 

The girl stopped him mid-rant, “I’m fine! If anything I should be the one worrying! Your legs and arm were twisted in the weirdest angles, I thought you were DEAD.” 

 

“Oh, it’s fine! Recovery Girl managed to reset them, the rest of the healing I did on my own. Everything is all better though now- uh-“ Izuku paused, realizing he never managed to get this girls name.

 

“My name is Ochako Uraraka!” She caught onto his context clues, “what about you?”

 

“Oh- uh! My name is-“

 

“DEKU!”

 

Izuku turned and realized with a jolt that Kacchans attention had turned to him, and he didn’t look any less angry than before.

 

“What the FUCK did you just call me?!” The one arguing with Kacchan screamed back, jumping down from the desk heavily and storming after him.

 

“Not you, ponytail!”

 

“It’s a fucking BRAID you uncultured SWINE!” This kid hissed, jumping in front of Kacchan with a glare.

 

“Ed, stop it!” It was the other kid who was trying to talk them down, and Izuku realized with a start how similar the pair looked. Then why that hair style was somewhat familiar. This ‘Ed’ was at the same zone as him at the entrance exams!

 

“What the HELL DID YOU CALL ME!?” Bakugou screamed, his palms sparking as he looked down on Ed. Kacchan had a good extra foot in height compared to Ed, and it seemed that he wasn’t too keen about being looking down upon.

 

Izuku jolted into rigid stance as he glanced between the pair, waves of sweat beading on his forehead as he silently begged Ed not to repeat himself. If this kid had any wish to see the light of tomorrow he would do anything but repeat-! “AN. UNCULTURED. SWINE,” Ed emphasized, pushing himself up on his toes to match Kacchan’s height.

 

“You’re going to die first, short stack!” Kacchan barked, before two students jumped in and forced him back. But he wasn’t the only one lunging for the others throat, the insult ‘short stack’ seeming to hit a special nerve in Ed. Nobody was physically holding him back but the other kid who looked somewhat like Ed had planted himself in front of the raging ball of fury; moving back in front of him every time Ed tried to storm past him.

 

“GET OUT OF MY WAY, AL! I’M GOING TO MURDER HIM FOR CALLING ME SO SHORT THAT I CAN’T EVEN BE SEEN BY THE NAKED EYE!!” Ed screamed, trying to push past Al but not seeming too keen on actually shoving him out of the way. It was weird how he took a simple insult as a lengthy punch to the gut.

 

“You need to calm down! Class will start soon and we really shouldn’t get kicked out on the first day! What would Winry say?” Al barked.

 

Ed then stopped in his tracks, then even seemed to pale a little as the name ‘Winry’ was uttered. “You’re bluffing,” Ed deadpanned.

 

“She’s right under us in the engineering department,” Al emphasized.

 

“She’d kill you too.”

 

“A sacrifice I’m willing to make.”

 

The two stared at each other for a moment before Ed spun around, “FINE! We will settle this another day! And until that day…” Ed slowly turned his head and flashed a smug, shit-eating grin at Kacchan, “... I’ll remain as the top student in this school!”

 

“I’M GOING TO FUCKING KILL YOU!” Kacchan shrieked and kicked against the students who were still holding him back as Ed walked past him just out of reach, like a cat standing on a fence as he taunted the dog below. He slid into his seat with a grin and lifted his feet onto his desk, leaning back as if it was a relaxing day at the beach. This only pissed Kacchan off even more as he grew more and more aggressive, and Al looked ready to step in and do … well, something. Izuku just didn’t know what he could think of to have Kacchan calm down. 

 

The door clicked and slowly slid open, which only Izuku seemed to notice as he was growing accustomed to the chaos ensuing around him. Nobody was at the door though, until his gaze trailed to the floor where a scruffy face poked out of a yellow, cushion-y sleeping bag. Dead eyes trailed up to Izuku, then to the rest of the chaos-ridden classroom. If Izuku didn’t know better, he was sure he saw the bags under the man’s eyes  _ DARKEN _ at the sight. 

 

Then he slowly shuffled his way up to an upright position, and hopped over to the desk at the front of the room. “Everybody take your seats,” he mumbled. Izuku worriedly cast his gaze across the room at the screaming pile of children holding back anger incarnated from murdering the one person who probably started it all. Nobody heard the man speak other than Izuku and even for him it was strained. The man shuffled in his sleeping bag before a bag of juice slowly emerged from the depths and lifted to his lips, then he took a LONG and LOUD sip that managed to catch everyone’s attention and shock them into silence. The slurping lasted a full 15 seconds before dying back down to silence. The juice bag disappeared back into the sleeping bag, “I said. Take your seats.” 

 

Everyone scrambled to their seats, even Kacchan despite him shooting a blazing glare at Ed who only sent another smug grin his way. Izuku had a feeling that Kacchan wanted to fight once nobody was looking, and by the way Ed was leaning back, Izuku didn’t think he was going to survive the beating he just prompted out of Kacchan.

 

Izuku snapped his attention to the front of the class, watching as the man slowly shuffled out of his sleeping bag, “my name is Shouta Aizawa. I’m going to be your homeroom teacher for the next three years. To start, we are going to do some exercises so I can see where you are at the moment and determine for myself just how much potential you each have. Now go get changed into your training gear and meet me at training grounds B.” With that being said, Mr. Aizawa then left the room and disappeared down the hall. Izuku half expected the class to fall back into chaos, but instead everyone stood up and began walking towards the change rooms, chatting away as if nothing happened.

 

Uraraka skipped up next to him, “You alright there? You look like a walking statue!”

 

Izuku stiffly nodded, “it’s just… different from my last school.” Izuku then realized he was one of the last students to enter class, and that Uraraka probably knew what caused such a chaotic scene. “Can I ask you something?”

 

Uraraka laughed, “You don’t need to ask me for permission! Just ask away!”

 

“Well-“ Izuku awkwardly stammered, scratching his cheek, “- I was wondering if you saw what happened with all of… that.”

 

“The screaming match? Well it was quiet when I got there, everyone chatting to people they knew from either the exams or middle school. Then the golden pair-“

 

“Golden pair?” Izuku asked.

 

“The two boys with the really gold-blonde hair. I think their names are Al and Ed but those sound more like nicknames. I think they’re twins. I think everyone does, even the kid in the back who looks like he lacks emotion.  I’m calling them the Golden Pair because of their hair and they seem pretty close.”

 

“Now that you mention it, they do have similar features as well… but continue with your story.”

 

“Well I think Al mentioned Ed’s name, or nickname. And the explosive kid stood up and asked if his full name was Edward Elric. He said yes and then the explosive boy started to yell and scream! I thought the other kid was going to back down from such an outburst but then he stood up and started yelling back and at some point they stood up on the desks and just continued to call each other names and Al was trying to reason them down and the rest of us were mainly on stand-by. Then you walked in!”

 

“Edward Elric… that name sounds familiar…” Izuku muttered.

 

“That’s probably because he got the top score at the entrance exam,” Uraraka piped in.

 

Izuku jolted upright, “you’re right! He was! He had one more point than Kacchan!” Oh, that made sense. He beat Kacchan by one point, a point he probably believes he could have gotten if he had more time. Which means he had a point to prove and Ed was going to be the victim of that point.

 

“Ka-chan?” Uraraka asked, leaning forward.

 

They reached their crossroads of entering the boys locker room and girls locker room, which Izuku quickly forgot Uraraka’s question as he nodded towards the rooms, “we should hurry and change or else we could be left behind.”

 

Uraraka nodded back and they nodded a ‘see you later’ and entered their respective rooms.

 

Izuku was glad he didn’t enter another active minefield as the door slipped behind him. A quick scan of the room and he noticed neither of the Golden Pair was in sight, which explained why Kacchan wasn’t ready to blow up half the class on a moments notice.

 

It was somewhat peaceful… until Kacchan spotted him and started yelling at him about ‘cheating the entrance exams’.

 

-

 

-

 

-

 

Ed ignored the classes side-glances at his and Al’s bandaged arms, annoyed with the principle’s decision to keep their metal parts a secret for now. He could still remember that rat’s beady little eyes as he smiled at the pair and told them to keep their incident a secret by keeping questions to a minimal. This meant hiding their metal limbs with stupid sports tape or whatever instead of just adding fucking sleeves to the stupid uniforms. 

 

Just the thought of the principle sparked his anger;

 

_ “While the fact that Alphonse will be attending is quite the exception, I wished to speak to you about the… other matter,” Nedzu had said in an oddly cheerful tone. “The one regarding the… momster.” _

 

_ Edward and Alphonse both froze at the name, then Alphonse clearly seemed to shake from such an insult as Edward kicked his chair over from the force of him standing up so quickly, his face twisted in rage as he glared daggers at the principle. “What the FUCK did you just call that thing-?!” Edward spit, venom lacing his words.  _

 

_ Nedzu squirmed in his seat, “a-“ _

 

_ Alphonse spoke next, his voice not shaky like his body, instead it was eerily calm. “With all due respect sir… we would rather you not call it that. That thing is a stain on our lives, one that we wish we never even thought of attempting. Calling it such a horrible name… would suggest we did something worse than make that… thing.” _

 

_ Nedzu watched the pair, as if analyzing each of Alphonse’s words carefully before he spoke again. “I apologize. While my coworkers admit I have a twisted sense of humour, this was more or less a jab at you two for personal feelings from an unfortunate past of mine that doesn’t involve either of you. It was... unprofessional and I won’t refer the mons- creature as that again.” _

 

_ Alphonse’s eerie calmness faded back into his normal calmness, which Edward took as a sign to sit back down and hear out the rest of what the principle had to say despite his twitchy movements from time to time. _

 

_ “After such an incident, it’s recorded here that you both underwent some very private operations,” Nedzu continued, which Edward quickly piped up. _

 

_ “They weren’t illegal. The Rockbells had established and licsened the practice decades ago.” _

 

_ “Yes, I am aware of that. It’s just an interesting choice, automail being available for anyone wanting nerve connected prosthetics but very uncommon based on the painfulness of the operation and connection of nerves whenever the prothstectics need replacement. Two young boys undergoing such a procedure is… even rarer.” _

 

_ Edward shrugged, “normal prosthetics would only slow us down, they don’t work with my quirk and Al can’t walk with normal prosthetics. We agreed that automail was the best choice if we ever wanted to become heroes.” _

 

_ “And how did you pay for it all? It’s not a cheap procedure either,” Nedzu questioned. _

 

_ “We… are really good friends with the Rockbells, they agreed we can pay them back when we can. We take summer jobs and most of it will come from when we become heroes,” Alphonse clarified. _

 

_ “Truly an interesting case. Which is why we need as little questions as possible concerning your past. While our uniforms will easily hide your metal parts, as well as your costumes seem to do the same thing, our gym uniforms have short sleeves. Both of you will need either elbow length gloves or need to wear long sleeves under this uniform. Or use any other solution you may be able to think of.” _

 

_ “Why not just lengthen the sleeves on our uniforms?” Edward frowned. _

 

_ “Oh, I can’t do that. If a student wishes to hide scars they are not too keen on showing then it is up to them to hide it. The school bears no responsibility in the matter,” Nedzu explained. _

 

_ “But I don’t care if they see my arm, it’s just a fancy prosthetic!” Edward hissed. “All your uniforms ruin my aesthetic and I think showing off my arm will actually make your dumb clothes look cooler!” _

 

_ “If other students see it, it will lead to questions. And we don’t need questions. If you wish to show it off to your friends later, you can but only unless it’s necessary, we need to keep this all under wraps,” Nedzu nodded. _

 

_ “I fucking hate all these rules,” Edwards mumbled as he leaned back into his chair.  _

 

_ “That’s exactly what detective Mustang said you’d say,” Nedzu slid a sly smirk as Edward bolted upright. _

 

_ “FUCK MUSTANG, TELL HIM TO MIND HIS OWN FUCKING BUSINESS!” _

 

It would have been so easy to drop-kick that rat into the sun, just grab him by that pointed nose and send him flying out the window. It would have been so satisfying as well, seeing that smirk being wiped off the principles face as he flew into oblivion. 

 

Instead he had to stand among his peers looking fucking ridiculous with bandages wrapped around his arm like he managed to fucking hurt himself or something.

 

It didn’t matter though, because he would be the coolest looking dude this class had ever witnessed once he blew through these tests.

 

The angry hedgehog head shot him another glare as Aizawa explained how to do the tests, his gaze murderous and trying to burn a hole through Ed’s skull. Ed easily shrugged it off and shot his own taunting smirk, begging him to try and even MATCH Ed’s skill. Al noticed the exchange and quickly stepped between the two, slapping Ed in the back of a head.

 

Ed barked out from the impact, “Al, what the hell!”

 

“Stop starting shit!” Al hissed back.

 

“He’s starting shit! I’m returning the shit!” Ed argued.

 

“I’ll fucking end the shit then!” Al growled with another whack.

 

“Fine! I’ll just show him that I’m better than him!” Ed grinned as he dodged a third smack.

 

“That’s starting shit, Ed!”

 

-

 

-

 

-

 

Izuku heaved heavily as he watched Alphonse cross the line last, his limp slowing him down compared to the rest of the class. Once Aizawa called the brothers names, it was confirmed they were in fact brothers and that they preferred the nicknames they already established between each other. They were odd names though, very European or American, but they lacked the accent most foreigners had. 

 

Izuku couldn’t help but feel guilt as Alphonse finished last in yet another exercise, the threat of expulsion heavy over everyone’s head. Izuku hadn’t seen him use his quirk yet, then again to be fair, Izuku hadn’t used his either. Everyone else had found ways in using their quirks to gain an advantage, Uraraka owning the long jump with her gravity quirk, Iida demolishing the track with his engine quirk, and Edward and Kacchan used their own quirks as a mini competition between the two to see who would get first place in the most exercises. Edward’s quirk was especially interesting, he never mentioned it’s name and it was difficult to pinpoint what exactly he was doing. One small thing he noticed was before he did anything, he would clap his hands together every single time. It was intriguing to watch and try and figure out what he doing exactly, but Izuku has to focus on the bigger picture. And that was NOT getting last place and getting kicked out on the last day.

 

Alphonse suddenly appeared next to him, breathing heavily from the race but a smile still spread across his face, “is you’re quirk is not exactly meant for these types of trials either?”

 

Izuku jumped, then awkwardly scratched his cheek, “Well, you could say that…” he mumbled.

 

Alphonse didn’t seem to dwell too long on his answer, “mine isn’t either, and my physical skills aren’t cut out for this either.”

 

“Why don’t you seem more worried?” Izuku blurted. “Mr. Aizawa threatened expulsion for the person who placed last and… well it isn’t looking good for either of us.”

 

Alphonse shrugged, “If I get expelled because of my physical abilities now, then the teachers here aren’t the best like they claim to be, now are they? Not all heroes have the ability to focus of pure strength, and not all situations can be solved with strength alone.”

 

Izuku frowned, the new outlook on these tests swirling around his head. Alphonse ran off though before Izuku could come up with an answer, the other meeting his brother and chatting quickly as the other grinned like he owned the world and sauntered around.

 

They were polar opposites, yet Izuku could easily see the bond they shared. He wondered if Mr. Aizawa would really expel a student for not meeting the physical expectations of the rest of the class, or if it was all a ruse like Alphonse seemed to suggest it was. Risking a side glance to Mr. Aizawa, he was met with a cold, hard stare and quickly turned back to watch Kacchan send a baseball rocketing into the sky for the last event. 

 

That stare was of a man who didn’t make empty threats. 

 

The Elrics went next, Alphonse first due to the nature of things being down based on alphabetical order. Once again, his quirk didn’t make a single appearance as he chucked the ball as far as he could using his left hand, but it did manage to make quite an impressive distance. Edward stepped up next after passing a few words to his brother as they walked past each other, then shot a smirk at Kacchan, who’s hands crackled in intimidation. Their exchanges reminded Izuku of two very extravagant, yet aggressive peacocks. Flaring out their feathers and dancing around despite no one actually being around to be impressed by their efforts. 

 

Edward did the thing with his hands again, clapping them together before picking up the ball. The shape slightly changed, making it more pointed and aerodynamic. Kacchan quickly shouted at Mr. Aizawa upon seeing the alteration, “Hey, he can’t fucking do that!” Kacchan hissed.

 

Mr. Aizawa shot him a tired look, half his face covered by his odd tangle of a scarf around his neck, “I said anyone can use their quirk how they pleased. If he alters the shape of the ball, then so be it. If he can’t do that, then you can’t use your quirk to give the ball an extra push.”

 

Kacchan barked out an angry huff, but said no more as Edward pulled back, then sent the ‘ball’ flying. It went much further than most of the other throws so far, but not as far as Kacchan’s pitch, which he noticed and made very clear with loud and obnoxious taunts. Edward didn’t seem too bothered though, turning away from him and sauntering back over to his brother. For once, it seemed like he was just leaving it, before turned and flashing the bird at him, hidden from view of Mr. Aizawa whose focus was back on the next student. This earned him another smack from his brother and a series of shouted curses from Kacchan that were progressively getting quite creative.

 

“Midoriya. You’re next,” Mr. Aizawa caught his attention, and Izuku jogged over as a taller student with a very shy denemor quickly shuffled away from them. “You know the drill, throw it as far as you can.”

 

Izuku lifted the ball, mentally calculating how he could manage to avoid getting last place. This could be the one chance he could show off one for all and prove that he deserves this spot at UA. He needed to blast this ball so far, that he would jump the ranks safely away from the last spot. Whatever the cost!

 

Power surged through his arm, bursting at the seams as he pulled back, then threw the ball with the power of one for all! 

 

The ball plopped to the ground a mere meter from where he stood and rolled lazily to a stop in the grass. His heart sank, didn’t he managed to destroy a giant robot with this kind of power-?

 

“I erased your quirk.”

 

Izuku jumped and quickly spun around, limbs locking and blood freezing as he met glowing red eyes and drifting hair. Mr. Aizawa’s scarf also lifted with his hair, revealing a flash of yellow hidden in the folds. Everything then clicked and Izuku realized why this man looked familiar yet hard to pinpoint from where. He was an underground hero, one usually hidden from the public eye, Eraserhead!

 

“That throw would have broken your arm and left you incapacitated, leaving you as another victim needing to be saved and causing more problems than it would solve. A hero has to take care of themselves or else they are nothing but dead weight in a battle. Would you hope that others will come help you? They are more likely to be busy fighting their own battles and therefore will leave you to deal with your problems and that could leave you as the next casualty. Think. Before you act,” Mr. Aizawa hissed, then tossed another ball to him. “Try that again. Don’t be stupid about it.”

 

Izuku frowned as he looked down at the ball once more, he didn’t have a handle on one for all yet. He just got this quirk less than a month ago and it took ten months of training just to build his body to handle it being used and even that still broke his bones upon use. How could he prove that his power wasn’t just a one shot move? That he could keep fighting after using it?

 

Maybe…

 

Maybe he didn’t have to use his entire arm.

 

Just one extra push from one for all should be enough. The last point of contact.

 

Just a single finger.

 

-

 

-

 

-

 

Alphonse frowned, spotting his name at the bottom of the board. He should have seen it coming, honestly. He finished last in almost every exercise, his quirk’s full potential only able to be realized through other means than just physical tasks. Yet somewhere inside of him, he hoped his spars with his brother would have aided him in these competitions, that he would’ve managed to push through at the last minute and show that he wasn’t just a weak kid. Yeah, he had a limp. But he was nimble, he could dodge attacks quickly and pinpoint blindsides and stick to that spot before finding a time to strike. He could slide under his attackers, use their power against them. While he may not be able to run quickly in a 100 meter dash, he could easily zig zag through a maze of alleys and side streets then take the exact path back to the start.

 

In the end, he couldn’t show any of that. Even the parts he managed to pull ahead in, it wouldn’t be far. It took so much to get into this school and now it looked like he was going to be sent home packing. 

 

It… just wasn’t right.

 

“Oh, and nobody is going home.” Alphonse perked up, the sting of tears subsiding from surprise as Mr. Aizawa pulled off the most terrifying grin with wide, bloodshot eyes. “It was nothing more than a logical ruse to bring out your best performance!” Alphonse silently wished he could deck his teacher, but had to remain the responsible brother and hold back Ed from doing just that by grabbing the collar of his uniform and stopping him in his tracks. Other students around him released the breath they were all holding, almost in union. He glanced over to Midoriya, who looked about ready to collapse where he stood as he tightly clutched a broken finger.

 

Midoriya was… a curious addition to the class. Alphonse assumed beforehand that he had a similar quirk to his, one that wasn’t best shown for physical advancements. But he never would have guessed that his quirk allowed extra strength at the cost of his body. Alphonse has never seen a quirk so poorly adjusted to someone’s body before, almost like he hadn’t used it for years and was now just trying it out. Maybe it was the type of quirk it was, advancing faster than the users body and therefore risking the health and wellness of the body. 

 

Alphonse glanced over to his older brother, who seemed to have calmed down and also be deep in thought as he stared at Midoriya, no doubt having similar theories about his quirk and why it seemed like it may just send him to the medical ward each time he used it. With a shrug, he tapped Al’s shoulder and motioned for them to head out for the day and head back to Grandma Pinako’s house.

 

As they were about to enter the building to change back into their regular uniforms, Mr. Aizawa stepped in front of them, blocking their path and watching as the other students walked by with curious looks. Bakugou spat another insult at Ed, having won their mini competition but just barely. Which seemed like he was hoping to blow Ed out of the water, not to mention Ed getting top rank by just a single point was still probably a sore spot. Bakugou had the same hot-headed temper as Ed, which was a bad combination with his brother who refused to back down to any challenge. It wasn’t like Ed was helping either when he shot shit-eating grins and continuously egged him on.

 

At least this time Mr. Aizawa was here to hurry Bakugou away before another fight broke out. Then it was just the three of them, standing awkwardly in front of the doors as nobody so much as coughed. Luckily, his big brother was very good at breaking these kind of silences.

 

“So what the fuck do you want?” Ed loudly questioned. Ed was never the most elegant with words.

 

“How old are you?” Aizawa directed the question to Ed, in which he immediately caught on to his intentions and prickled at the question.

 

“I’m 15, like everyone else in this class!” He hissed menacingly.

 

Aizawa blinked, one of the most clear indications of surprise he had shown thus far, which only stabbed farther into Ed’s pride. “So that makes you the younger one,” Aizawa’s gaze turned to Al. Ed slumped to the ground in defeat, punching a fist into the dirt as he groaned in pain.

 

“Every time. Every fucking time,” he whimpered between clenched teeth.

 

Mr. Aizawa ignored Ed’s dramatic fall and continued on like he didn’t just witness Ed’s pride being squashed like a grape. “Nedzu told me you two have history. Bad history. He didn’t specify on the details but I did notice both of you move differently from the rest of the group, as if carrying more weight than your frame suggests. Not to mention I didn’t see Alphonse use his quirk at all today. If I’m going to teach you anything, I need to know exactly what the hell is going on and if this bad history has anything to do with it.”

 

Al shot a glance at Ed, who was back on his feet with a new more serious expression. Ed then pulled loose the bandages of his wrapped right arm to reveal the glittering metal of automail. Al took this as a signal and rolled up his right pant leg to reveal his own automail. Neither of them said anything as Mr. Aizawa stared at the metal limbs with an empty expression. Then, he slowly crossed his arms and tilted his gaze back up to their faces, “is that it?”

 

Al shook his head, “no sir. My left foot and left forearm also are automail.”

 

“And my left leg is automail as well,” Ed held a harsher glare, as if daring Mr. Aizawa to expel them for using odd prosthetics. 

 

“I’m guessing those are all related to your bad history,” Aizawa raised an eyebrow.

 

“It doesn’t fucking matter, they work just as well as normal limbs, nerves and all. So what if they are a little heavier than normal? Not like that’s a problem when it adds an extra kick to my punches,” Ed rolled his eyes as he tugged the bandages on his arm tight once more. 

 

“What about your quirk?” Aizawa trained his attention solely on Al, and he took it as a moment to stand up straight and look him back in the eye. He was proud of his quirk, even after that night. Ed was sure to drill it into his skull that he should be proud of what he could do instead of hating it for what it did. Al did the same in return, though Ed seemed to also be working to convince himself at the same time. 

 

“It’s called soul transfer,” Al explained. “I can move my soul out of my body and possess people and objects. I can also take other people’s souls do basically the same thing. It’s why I’m not… great at physical events like this. My strength is more spiritual.”

 

Aizawa grunted as he used the word ‘spiritual’, Al admitted it did sound a bit silly but it was one of the best ways to describe his quirk’s strength and training. “Moving the soul… you make something so complex sound so simple... Both of you are dismissed,” then he left. Turned around a corner and disappeared from sight.

 

Al and Ed exaggerated a sigh of relief once they were sure he was gone. “I thought he was going to drill us for details! And I really hate going back to that night,” Al shivered.

 

“No kidding, he’s better than Mustang though. Doesn’t brag as much and is much more brooding,” Ed made little gestures as he talked and they walked back to the change room. “You didn’t go too much into detail about your quirk though, don’t you want to brag about how cool and powerful it is?”

 

Al drapped an arm over his face, “I want to be mysterious. So when people think they got a handle on my quirk, BLAM! A new move throws everything they know out the window and I get the advantage! Everyone will be dazzled and amazed! No one will know if there is ever a limit to my power!”

 

Ed sighed, “you’re so dramatic, Al.”

 

Al sputtered, “says the guy who broke his arm in a fist fight just to prove he could fight and win with only one arm.”

 

“Hey! I totally proved my point with that move!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ed is still an idiot who can’t take a short insult.
> 
> (Plus if anyone wants to create art with these idiots please tell me I wanna see)


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Quirks are shown off and costumes are revealed!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This... is a lot of fun.
> 
> Just the Elric brothers being part of the universe of heroes. I love it.
> 
> Thanks for the love as well! I’m glad other people really like this series as well!

The door slammed open as a booming voice exploded throughout the room, “IT IS I! ALL MIGHT! ENTERING A STANDARD CLASSROOM TO TEACH FOR THE DAY!” Ed jolted at the volume of the voice, reminding him of Armstrong as he instinctively scanned the room for the man famous for ambushing the brothers with bone-crushing hugs. But this wasn’t Armstrong, this was the number one hero All Might! Even if Ed and Al weren’t as hero savvy as most in this class may be, they all knew who All Might was. 

 

A powerhouse of a man whose smile would bring hope in trying times, at one time in his life, Ed had aspired to be just like All Might. While he may not feel the same way anymore, he did still retain some wonder in the idea of such a famous hero teaching their class. 

 

Glancing at Al, he was reminded that his younger brother wasn’t as good at hiding his excitement and joy upon seeing the hero up close. He was  _ vibrating _ from excitement, almost like he ready to leap out of his chair and try and shake the hero’s hand. Luckily for the class, All Might was quick to get to his point as he stood tall at the front. “Upon applying for UA, you were to fill out additional papers indicating designs for your hero costume! This could’ve been descriptions or full blown drawings on what exactly you wanted! Today, you all get to test out your new outfits!” 

 

The class exploded in excited chatter, groups exclaiming how they couldn’t wait to see their designs in person or others more skeptical or worried on how it would turn out. Ed didn’t expect Al to be one of those who looked more or less worried about the subject. Before he could ask Al about it, All Might had started talking again as he slammed a fist onto the button on the wall. “The engineering department has built everything to your specifications! Each of these cases contain your new costume! What are you all waiting for? Come get them!” All Might laughed as the class excitedly got up and found their cases, dashing towards the door and heading to the training grounds as if they were afraid their costumes would disappear if they didn’t put them on fast enough. Even as Ed was one of the last to grab his case, he noticed Al lingering behind, awkwardly shuffling his feet and looking… somewhat worried.

 

He then noticed Al kept glancing at All Might, like he wanted to ask him something but was having issues working up the courage-

 

Oh Al. Even if he acted like the older brother from time to time, he was still young enough to be shy around the number 1 hero of Japan.

 

Luckily, All Might noticed before Ed could intervene and jolted up a little more straighter like he just remembered something, “ah! Yes! Younger Elric! You had an odd request for a costume, am I right?” He asked at his usual booming volume.

 

“Uh- yes! It’s-, well I don’t think it will fit in one of these cases…” Al stumbled over his words, his voice squeaking from time to time. 

 

“DO NOT FRET YOUNGER ELRIC!” All Might exclaimed, picking up the remaining case and handing it to Al with enthusiasm. “This is merely half of your design! The other half is waiting one of the stalls of the changing room!” Ed saw Al’s body physically relax. Now he was burning with curiosity, he never really discussed costume designs with Al and now he wanted to know what kind of design wouldn’t fit in one of these cases? It’s all fabric, right?

 

“Thank you, Mr. All Might, sir!” Al squeaked then hurried out of the classroom, his face red before disappearing from view. Ed grinned, finding it somewhat funny how flustered he got around All Might. 

 

“YOUNG ELRIC!”

 

Ed nearly jumped out of his skin as he whipped around to face All Might bent over and right in his face with that very toothy smile, “holy  _ shit _ , don’t scream in people’s ear!” Ed cried as he scuttled backwards. 

 

“Ah! Right! Is there something you need as well?” All Might straightened up, easily towering over Ed like a mountain. 

 

“Nah, just distracted,” Ed waved him off as he left the classroom to join the other students. As interesting as it was to talk to the number one hero, Al’s costume was nagging at the back of his mind he was going to get to the bottom of it. 

 

He sped down the hallway, then joined Al as they made their way to the the training grounds that was a slightly longer distance from the rest of the school. He did try to convince Al to tell him why his costume wouldn’t fit in the case but Al was well known for being more tight lipped when it came to surprises. Al knew exactly how to brush Ed off or change the topic on a moments notice, sometimes so well that Ed would forget his personal mission to draw out the surprise. Al even had the advantage as well, as he easily dragged their classmates into the conversations regarding topics surrounding cats. 

 

At the training grounds, the group separated into the gendered locker rooms, which Al found a stall with a note labeled with his name tapped to it. He scuttled into the stall before anyone could catch a glimpse of what could possibly be hiding in there and locked the door. Ed huffed in annoyance as he recognized he lost the battle, pulling on his own costume in defeat. 

 

Honestly, there should be an award for best hero costume because Ed would definitely win that contest. It was simple, breezy, and had a bomb-ass colour scheme! It even had a touch of class, wearing small white gloves to match it all. Once he pulled his brilliantly red jacket on, he looked over to realize the rest of the boys in the locker room were staring at him. “What?” Ed frowned.

 

“Dude, your arm and leg are METAL,” a kid with red hair exclaimed.

 

“Oh. Right,” Ed realized he didn’t bother hiding the automail today and just changed in front of everyone, revealing the special secret that Nedzu told them to keep. Not like he actually cared that much. 

 

“That is manly as FUCK,” the red head shrieked excitedly, “is it part of your quirk? Or can you take it off?”

 

Ed smirked, fuck the rat. He does whatever the fuck he wants to do and hiding his automail was a stupid idea to begin with, “they’re my pretty amazing prosthetics! Childhood friend built them with her bare hands. The best automail you will ever lay your eyes on,” he bragged.

 

“That’s so manly!!” The kid shrieked, dramatically shaking his fist.

 

“So what if he has a metal arm, what happens when it breaks? It’ll leave you a defenceless weakling in need of saving from real heroes,” Bakugou hissed. Ed shot a glare, frowning at his showy costume with giant grenade shaped gauntlets.

 

“You don’t need a quirk to punch someone in the face, you stupid, aggressive hedgehog!” Ed shot back.

 

Bakugou twitched, “What the fuck did you just call me you fucking bean sprout?”

 

“I’LL SHOW YOU BEANSPROUT YOU STUPID-!” Ed barked, getting ready to throw himself across the room when the robot kid stepped between them.

 

“Now is not the time for petty squabbles! We are to meet outside immediately for the excerise All Might has carefully constructed for the betterment of our education!” He exclaimed, chopping the air aggressively as he made his speech. 

 

Ed tsked, crossing his arms in a huff as he watched Bakugou storm out of the change room. The rest of the boys filtering out behind him as they pulled in the final accessories corresponding to their costumes. He hung back a moment, calling into the change room Al hadn’t come out of yet, “you better hurry up Al, everyone is basically dressed and ready to go.”

 

“I’ll be out in a minute, brother! Don’t wait for me!” Al called back. Ed shrugged and left the room to catch up with the others. Catching up with the group, he realized robot kid actually looked like a robot, wearing fitted armour from head to toe. It took him awhile to recognize some other kids based on masks they wore or how different they looked with their new costumes. Even Midoriya was hard to recognize, donning an odd hood that covered his entire head and reminding him of a green rabbit. All Might stood tall at the front of the ground, waiting and watching for stragglers.

 

“Is that everyone?” He asked, scanning the crowd as if mentally counting heads.

 

“Just waiting for Al-“ Ed piped up when Al called from behind him.

 

“I’m here!”

 

Only… his voice sounded echoey… and Ed heard very heavy footsteps that clanked loudly like armour. He turned and nearly shouted in surprise when he saw a HUGE suit of armour running up to them. The size of it easily matched All Mights size and physique, and Ed doubted that Al was actually WEARING that huge thing. So this is what he meant when he said that he didn’t think that it would fit in one of those cases. Everyone around him looked over in surprise as well, some even gasping as they took it all in.

 

Ed smirked, Al you clever bastard! Using the costume as a tool to fully utilize his quirk! Al always did say dolls and human like objects were the easiest to control, and a suit of armour maximized his defence and strength. While a cloth doll would only deliver a blow that felt like a pillow full of dirt, metal armour would be able to last longer, deliver powerful blows and even trick enemies into believing Al was slow based on the weight. But since it was just his soul moving it, there was nothing slowing him down.

 

He came to a stop at the back of the group, towering over everyone and awkwardly shuffling his feet which creating more clanking. “Sorry, I had to figure out how to get in the armour. I’m ready now!” Al apologized. Either he didn’t realize that the reason people were staring was because it was impossible for some scrawny 13 year old to be moving such a giant suit or he just chose not to comment on that fact. 

 

Ed elbowed his giant metal side playfully, “I didn’t know you were into this kind of style! I thought if anything, it would look more like robot kid’s armour over there!”

 

“My NAME is TENYA IIDA!” The robot kid exclaimed.

 

Al shuffled his feet again, “Well, I’m not… I just… didn’t really submit a design of the suit. Just the dimensions and materials.”

 

“Holy shit, you left an open design opportunity for a class full of  _ Winry’s?! _ They must’ve had a field day with that!” Ed laughed.

 

“I like the design,” a kid with a bird head said in a low voice.

 

“AHEM. NOW THAT WE ARE ALL HERE!” All Might caught everyone’s attention once again. “LET'S GET STARTED WITH THE EXERCISE!”

 

-

 

-

 

-

 

Al stood awkwardly next to Yaoyorozu, having just witnessed the brutal battle between Midoriya and Bakugou. When All Might first explained the exercise, Al thought it was going to be interesting and somewhat fun! Iida even got into the role of the ‘villain’ by acting all dramatic and monologuing about evil plans that didn’t really make any sense. And it seemed to be going well!

 

Until Bakugou jumped out and sent out a barrage of unnecessary explosions, egging Midoriya on to use his quirk despite his reluctance to do so seeing that it broke his bones whenever he used it. Now he was back with recovery girl while Bakugou angrily sat in the viewing area. He hoped Ed wouldn’t start anything while Al was doing his exercise, last he saw, his older brother wasn’t extremely keen about Bakugou or his methods.

 

“Ok Alphonse, we’re going to need a strategy!” Yaoyorozu snapped him out of his thoughts. 

 

He nodded, tracking back to the exercise at hand, “of course!”

 

“Now the other team consists of Kaminari and Ojiro, which Kaminari has an electric based quirk while Ojiro’s is a mutant based quirk. Which may cause a bit of an issue since your entire costume is a conductor and I’m personally not the most skilled in hand to hand combat…” she explained, leaning her head against her head as she thought. “We really are outmatched here…” 

 

“Oh! Give me a moment!” Al exclaimed, then promptly switched his soul halfway to his body, holding up the armour as he opened the chest piece and climbed out. His fitted spandex costume was a fully black, form fitting, one piece leotard with a black mask. He also wore a black cloak for both aesthetic and camouflage purposes, the idea revolving around the idea of hiding his body in the shadows so he could fully take over the suit of armour and not worry about anyone actually causing physical damage. Without a word, he scuttled over to a closet he spotted across the room and closed the door behind him. He squished himself into the darkest corner and left his body, satisfied with its hiding spot and returning to the suit of armour and spreading full control over it. 

 

He pressed his chest plate closed and turned to Yaoyorozu, “ok, I’m ready!”

 

She shrieked and jumped back, looking between him and the closet, “what- but- I saw you-!” 

 

“I should explain,” Al shook his hands in an attempt to calm her, “my quirk is called Soul Transfer, meaning I can move my soul out of my body and into other items! Like this suit of armour!”

 

“That- that’s not possible,” Yaoyorozu shuttered.

 

“Well, it’s what my quirk does,” Al shrugged. “I can stay out of my body for about 30 minutes before my soul automatically snaps back to my body, or if the item I’m possessing gets destroyed before that time limit is up. So we don’t have to worry about me getting shocked because I won’t feel anything!”

 

Yaoyorozu’s voice still sounded shaky, but she managed to gain enough confidence to edge closer to Al, “ok… in that case, I can create an insulator and we can use it to capture Kaminari. So that leaves Ojiro…”

 

“Maybe we can set up traps? To at least slow them down, which if we really need to, I can hold them off as you capture them! Or at least until the time limit is up!”

 

“Perfect!” She grinned. 

 

Her quirk worked incredibly, she managed to create an insulator blanket they could wrap Kaminari up in, and a whole bunch of materials perfect for making traps. Al quickly got to work, using the string to create tripwires connected to swinging poles to the gut or wooden planks slapping into the face. Soon, the stairwells and selective hallways were riddled with a great number of traps, and Al returned to the main room in the nick of time as the horn blared indicating the start of the exercise. 

 

Al positioned himself near the door while Yaoyazoru huddled close to the bomb, hiding just out of view of the door Al stood near. It took awhile for the other team to make their way to the room, but Al managed to catch a few yelps and exclamations from their traps as they finally arrived. The door opened wide and Al lunged forward, aiming to hug-grab whoever tried to just walk in. They yelped and ducked just barely out of his grasp, skidding between his legs and jumping onto his back with a shout, “take this!”

 

Al noticed a barrage of bright light out of the corner of his eye, but didn’t feel a thing. This must be Kaminari then, and he just tried to shock him.

 

Al suddenly realized he couldn’t reach him on his back like that, so he played along, dropping to the ground like he was just shocked. Kaminari barked out a cry of triumph, sliding off his back and sauntering over to his arms, “I got him! You were right! His entire outfit is totally useless against electric type quirks!” Al twisted, grabbing Kaminari’s arm before got the chance to try and lift Al’s. Kaminari shouted in alarm, and Al moved quickly to hold him still as Yaoyorozu dashed from her hiding spot and threw the insulting blanket over his head and wrapped the capture tape around his arm and chest. “Wha-?!”

 

A bell chimed, and All Might’s voice echoed through the room, “Kaminari has been captured!”

  
  


“But- I- I shocked you! I know I did! That stuns everyone!” Kaminari wailed as Yaoyorozu stepped back.

 

“You did,” she sighed. “Where is Oji-?”

 

A sudden blur knocked her down before she could finish her sentence. Al tried to rush forward to help but paused as another bell chimed and All Might’s voice exploded over the speakers again, “Yaoyorozu has been captured!” That fast?!

 

He took a step back, realizing the capture tape around Yaoyorozu’s wrists and the look of surprise on her face, but Ojiro had disappeared again. Al quickly adjusted his stance, squaring his shoulders and sturdying himself. He scanned the room, and noticed with a start that the bomb was unprotected! He took a step forward to go defend the bomb when someone kicked him forward from behind, sending him stumbling forward. Ojiro appeared in front of him as he stumbled and was barely quick enough to hold up a block to defend against another hit. He deflected Ojiro’s attacks, and tried returning a few hits himself which Ojiro blocked with his tail. Al lunged forward, trying to grab Ojiro like he did with Kaminari. Only he dodged to the side and jump-kicked his side, sending him to the ground from the surprise attack. Ojiro moved quickly again, grabbing his arms and wrapping capture tape around them. No bell chimed to indicate a capture, and Ojiro looked around in confusion. 

 

“Do… do I have to take him OUT of the armour?” He asked.

 

Al pulled out of the suit, then slipped back into his own body. He opened his eyes with a start, then felt around for his capture tape. The battle wasn’t lost just yet. 

 

He moved forward, pushing the closet door open and spotting him walking towards the bomb. But not as fast as before. He thinks he won.

 

Al bolted forward, his steps silent thanks to the design he sent in, and threw himself at Ojiro. Ojiro cried out in alarm from his sudden attack, but Al made sure to be just as fast as he was when grabbing both his arms and pulling the capture tape tight around them. This time the bell chimed, “Ojiro has been captured! The villain team wins!”

 

Al flopped to the side in relief, his heart racing from the fear of Ojiro realizing he was running up behind him at the last second. “You are really fast!” Al exclaimed, “I thought you were about to notice me at the last second and stop me before I could do so much as touch you!”

 

Ojiro shrugged off the capture tape, looking at Al in surprise, “how did you do that? Did I really have to take you out of the armour?”

 

Al grinned, “I was never in the armour in the first place!” 

 

Kaminari shrieked, “You WHAT?! BUT HOW WAS IT MOVING THEN?!” He stumbled backwards, bringing his arms up protectively, “do you have some sort of puppet master quirk? Please tell me it doesn’t work on people!!”

 

Al shrugged, “it’s no fun if I just tell you how it works. You’ll just have to figure it out on your own!” He swished his cape dramatically, he had been waiting to play the mysterious card for awhile now.

 

“He told me his quirk is called Soul Transfer,” Yaoyorozu brought up.

 

“Traitor!” Al cried. “I thought we were friends!”

 

Yaoyorozu paused, then slowly brought her hands up in a shrug, “but that’s all he told me!”

 

Al grinned under his mask, “thank you!”

 

“You realize that we will all be rewatching it from the many cameras in this building, right?” Oijiro asked.

 

Al tore off his mask and threw it to the ground in a huff, “fine! I’ll just be mostly mysterious then!”

 

“Wait, that means there’s more to your quirk?” Yaoyorozu question.

 

Al stumbled away as he realized his mistake, “Ed was right, I am terrible at secrets!”

 

-

 

-

 

-

 

Ed looked over to Tokoyami, his partner for the upcoming exercise. Bird boy was pretty invested in Al’s fight, he even noticed more interest spark to light when Al snuck out of the closet and ambushed Ojiro. It was hard to catch as well, his underlying costume pitch black and making him look more like one of those shadows you catch in the corner of your eyes. Ed guessed that Al’s design was mainly based on practical use rather than personal aesthetic preference. Since his entire hero costume screamed goth, but Al himself preferred to look classy. It was hilarious finding out his younger brother didn’t actually design the armour part of his costume, he probably expected something more like Iida’s. Ed approved nothingless, proud with how his brother used the costume design to his full advantage. 

 

Then he decided to try and be dramatic and ultimately just embarrassed himself, realizing that everyone in class had just watched the exercise and that the individual teams would review them after as well. Ed should have seen it coming though, he already knew the full extent of Al’s quirk, and Al knew the full extent of his! Al had always complained about how it was no fun that he couldn’t surprise Ed anymore, especially with a quirk as invisible as Al’s. Ed always knew that in quirk charged spars, that he had to keep his distance from his brother, and in return Al knew to aim to disable one of his arms in some way. With years of training, they knew each other’s styles well enough to come up with counters. Yet with their quirkless spars, Al always managed to pull out a win. Al was tricky while Ed was more likely to just throw everything he could as fast as possible.

 

The other team walked in, Al now outside of the suit as he walked with it. It took him an entire year to master splitting his soul in half like that. Even then, Al admitted he couldn’t fight like that and it was mainly for easier travel. Thought he did express interest in the idea of one day being able to fight as an army like by splitting his soul between different hollow shells. It wouldn’t be easy though, just like how difficult it was to actually manipulate organic matter for Ed. His primary focus was healing, other than that he stuck to manipulation of inorganic matter since anything else was too close to that incident.

 

The trick impressed everyone else in the room though, some students tapping the large suit experimentally while others praised Al for his quick thinking. A very pink girl also jumped forward and asked if she could go in the suit while Al was controlling it, which Al didn’t hide any of his curiosity as he thought aloud about never actually trying it with other people but that it was probably easily achievable. All Might stepped in before everyone was too distracted, announcing that Ed, Tokoyami, Todoroki and Koda were up next. Ed cracked his knuckles excitedly, he was going to absolutely destroy this exercise!

 

Todoroki and Koda were the supposed villains while Tokoyami and Ed were the heroes who needed to secure either the bomb or the villains. Ed scanned the opposing team, noticing how Koda seemed quite timid compared to Todoroki, who reminded him of a much colder Hawkeye. He seemed like he was annoyed, his arms crossed as he blatantly ignored Koda who seemed to at least try and have a conversation with the other. Ed decided he didn’t like Todoroki, his entire denemer seeming to scream that he felt he was better than everyone else in the room. Well, Ed was going to make sure to have him rethink how he looked at his class, because now he was determined to show Todoroki what dirt tasted like. 

 

All Might went over the rules again, which Ed ignored as he grabbed Tokoyami by his cloaks collar and ran out of the room. He already knew the rules, he just wanted to do this thing!

 

Once outside the building as they waited for the villain team to get their bearings, Ed grinned to Tokoyami, “ok bird boy, what’s your quirk?”

 

“Really? Bird boy?” Tokoyami raised an eyebrow.

 

“It’s not an insult, promise,” Ed waved his hand, “you just have a beak and stuff and it’s kinda the first thing I think of.”

 

“Call me Toko, if you insist on nicknames,” he crossed his arms as he looked up at the large building. “And my quirk is Dark Shadow,” that being said a strange bird shaped, shadow thing popped out of the ground. “He follows my commands and acts as a companion, we are linked together and reacts based on my own thoughts and emotions.”

 

Ed reached out to touch it, fascinated with its shadowy structure, “so what is he, exactly? Shadows? Or an organic being?”

 

Tokoyami struggles slightly with his response, “he’s- my quirk…?”

 

Dark Shadow pulled away from Ed’s hand and he frowned, “I meant structurally. Such as humans being organic, and rocks being made out of minerals or air being a gas. It sound like he can touch and hold things, yet he disappears into you so just what kind of elements is he made from?”

 

Toko squirmed under Ed’s curious gaze, “uh- I never… did any research on anything like that… is your quirk science related?” He changed the subject to Ed, who gladly jumped onto the opportunity.

 

“It works BETTER if I have a basic handle on molecular structure,” he grinned. “I can basically manipulate anything I touch however I want, just as long as it stays within the rules of equivalent exchange.”

 

“Equivalent exchange?” 

 

“I can’t make something out of nothing, and I can’t make gold out of a leaf. It’s pretty simple,” Ed shrugged.

 

“Does this include people?” Tokoyami asked.

 

Ed blatantly ignored his last question, turning his attention back to the building, “so the plan is to run up there and win by force! I’ll punch that two toned haired kid in the face and you take on the timid one!”

 

“I’d be careful with Todoroki-“ Tokoyami insisted as Ed shrugged him off.

 

“I don’t need to be careful!” The starting horn blared and Ed ran for the doors, reaching for the handles when instead his hand hit ice. “What-?” He looked up and realized the entire building was coated in ice, any entrance being completely frozen solid. “That bastard thinks this can stop me?” He cackled through clenched teeth. He clapped his hands together and pressed them against the ice, the fool was dumb enough to give him a solid object to work with! Both hydrogen and oxygen molecules shifted at his fingertips and he pushed them easily aside. He didn’t bother using the handle, kicking down the door and storming into the building. He found the stairs and quickly made his way up the four flights, determined to kick this fuckface’s ass. 

 

Somehow, Tokoyami was able to keep up with his determined stride as he stepped next to him, “I understand your desire to exact vengeance but you must remember this is nothing more than a petty exercise.”

 

“Not anymore, it ain’t!” Ed grinned, shoving past him as he stepped forward, “I’m going to teach him a lesson with my fis-!” Ed stepped on an extra slippery patch of ice with his automail foot, everything slowing down as he fell backwards. First he felt confusion, wondering why he was staring at the ceiling instead of the hallway. Then pain as his head hit the stairs first, and more pain as he continued to tumble and fall down the four flights of stairs he just conquered. He slammed into one of the rails at one point, and he heard his automail crack as something loosened and he couldn’t move his arm anymore. Of course that’s when he hit his head for the fourth time on another step and just kept falling. It took him a few moments to realize that he had finally stopped tumbling down the stairs despite his vision still swimming. That’s when embarrassment hit him like a truck.

 

He lifted his only working arm to his face and groaned in a mixture of pain and annoyance. Four flights of stairs just kicked his ass, then he slammed his fist into the ground and scrambled to his feet. LIKE HELL THAT WAS GOING TO STOP HIM. 

 

Then he threw himself at the stupid stairs once again determined to finish what he started.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I kept their outfits from Fullmetal because I cannot just abandon my favourite designs of all time. Only now Al can choose to be in the suit while Ed is just terrible when it comes to fashion.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The brothers go to winry to fix Edward’s arm, since he can’t seem to keep it in a decent condition for longer than 20 minutes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was fun to write. 
> 
> You will see why soon.

Ed grumbled under his breath, his arm in a sling to keep it from continuously smacking into his side and bruising it, another bandage being poorly wrapped around his head. Ed somehow managed to break his automail after falling down the stairs during the exercise  _ twice _ . He also hit his head enough to cause bleeding. Even after falling down those stairs twice, he still managed to make it to the final room where the other team was at but couldn’t open the door. The rest was just the class watching Ed try to fight the door while still being disoriented from falling down the stairs. 

 

Afterwards, Ed insisted on waiting until the end of the exercises before heading off to Recovery Girl for a check up, then proceeded to turn to Todoroki and send out a series of cursing and insults before Al dragged him to the other side of the room. Once everyone had their turn and All Might sent them on their way, they were finally on their way to Winry to figure out just how Ed managed to break his automail once again. In hindsight, it was better to meet Winry first because this visitation is bound to earn some wrench related injuries. She was never too keen when either of the two boys would cause damage to their automail parts, even Al had been on the receiving end of that wrench. 

 

Just as they were about to turn off into the stairwell, Al spotted Midoriya shuffling towards them and muttering under his breath. His arm was in a sling but he seemed much better than earlier, the bruising on his face gone and more energy was added to his steps. Al elbowed Ed out of his own thoughts and waved to Midoriya, “Hey! You look much better! How are you feeling?”

 

Midoriya jolted as Al interrupted his muttering, looking up as he noticed the brothers in the middle of the empty halls. “Oh-! Much better! Nothing extreme, just some sprains is all,” his eyes locked onto Ed’s sling and squeaked in surprise. “Did someone else go too far? Am I stopping you from getting to Recovery Girl? Should I-?”

 

“Calm down, I’m fine. We were just heading to our mechanic,” Ed sighed.

 

“Yeah, he just fell down the stairs,” Al explained, earning a cry of alarm as Ed turned on him.

 

“Don’t tell him that part!” Ed cried.

 

Midoriya tilted his head in confusion. “Stairs…? Caused that?”

 

“He fell down twice,” Al piped in again.

 

“SHUT UP, THEY WERE SLIPPERY!” Ed shrieked, trying to slap a hand over Al’s mouth who ducked out of the way.

 

“Hey, since school is almost over, maybe you can come with us to meet her? She’s really smart, and you seem to be into theories and such, always muttering about strengths and weaknesses of quirks that is,” Al encouraged as he pushed Ed to the side, which his older brother tried biting his fingers in return.

 

“You mentioned she’s a mechanic? So why-... Ah! Right! I forgot! Your arm is made out of metal! It completely slipped my mind! Which means your arm isn’t broken, but… broken down?” Midoriya stumbled.

 

“Yeah, something fell loose so I can’t move it,” Ed shrugged, which earned him another elbow to the gut from Al.

 

“ _ You _ are the one who slammed it into a wall multiple times, nothing  _ fell _ loose, you are the one who knocked it loose!” Al growled.

 

“I can’t tell Winry that! She’ll kill me, bury me, then dance on my grave!” 

 

“Well, if you were more careful and maybe  _ drank your milk _ -!” 

 

“Stop bringing that devils drink into every mistake I make!” Ed shrieked, smacking his working hand onto his ear as he scurried away from Al. “Running up ice covered stairs was a dumb decision, yes. But I didn’t slip on the stairs, I slipped on the ice at the  _ top  _ of the stairs. That’s two different spots. Now let’s hurry up and get to Winry, I don’t like being defenceless like this.”

 

Midoriya tilted his head, “defenceless?”

 

Al shook his hand in the air, “he’s being dramatic. This is the safest place on the planet, you will survive a few more minutes without your quirk.”

 

“Can you not use it for some reason?” Midoriya pressed as he seemed to unconsciously pull out a notebook and pen out of nowhere. “Does it have to do with your arm?”

 

Ed side-eyed Midoriya, mentally going over the possible outcomes of telling him more about his quirk. He was a classmate, and it would probably come up eventually in the three years he was at this school. “I can’t use my quirk unless I can clap my hands together. I also can’t use it with normal prosthetics, I need nerves in both hands so the energy needed to activate my quirk can transfer between something. Once one of my arms is out of commission, I need to rely on my own combat skills in battle,” Ed explained.

 

“So your quirk is linked to your nerves! That’s incredible! I-... well I actually never got to see your quirk in action other than a glimpse at the entrance practical exams and a bit during the first day trials. Can you tell me more about it?”

 

Ed grinned, noticing the position he was in to redeem his lost honour. “I guess I can explain a few things on our walk to Winry’s classroom. I doubt she’s the type to leave early,” Ed shrugged. He caught Al roll his eyes and jabbed his side, earning a satisfying grunt from his little brother before falling behind him to talk to Midoriya. “My quirk is called  _ Manipulation _ , which means I can manipulate anything I touch. But that requires energy! So I clap my hands together and send energy between the nerves of my palms extremely fast, building up the energy so when I tap another surface, it will spread out to all the molecules connected to that surface! From there, I basically just have to imagine what I want to make and the material will mould into what I’m thinking of. It becomes much more accurate if I have an idea of the molecular structure of the object as well, like I can form an ice sculpture of a swan down to the finest detail if I understand that water is made out of hydrogen and oxygen and is tightly compact and slow moving because of the temperature. Without that extra knowledge, I can make maybe something that resembles a swan but it will look like shit.”

 

“That’s amazing! Are there any limitations to it? Like metal or trees?” Midoriya asked.

 

Ed shook his head, “if it has a molecular structure, my quirk works on it. I guess it makes it much easier when it’s a solid object though, liquids being tricky to handle based on the fact that they don’t remain the same shape once I let go. Don’t get me started on gas particles either, while it’s theoretically possible for me to manipulate gas particles, I haven’t had much luck in trying it out.”

 

“But with training, you may be able to one day,” Midoriya gasped.

 

“That’s right! I’m pretty strong right now but just wait until I can master my quirk and make it even stronger! I’ll be able to fix anything!” Ed’s thoughts flashed to his goal, then he shook them out of his head before he was engulfed by his master plan. “Almost anything, at least,” he shrugged.

 

“You called your prosthetics ‘automail’, which is something I’ve never heard of before. Are they like prosthetics but with nerve connections?” Midoriya asked, seeming satisfied with the information that Ed gave him about his quirk.

 

“You should ask Winry about that, she’s the one who made them,” Al piped in. “Which you won’t have to wait long because this is her classroom!” 

 

Ed then realized the slight change of scenery, so caught up in conversation he forgot he was going to get his arm fixed. 

 

Before they could knock on the door, a girl with curled, pink hair stepped outside and nearly walked into the group. She looked up in surprise, “oh! Do we have transfer students already? You really should come at the beginning of class and not the end of class!”

 

“No, we are here for one of the students,” Ed stepped up. “I need Winry for-.”

 

The girl leapt forward, “YOU KNOW WINRY?? Wait! WAIT WAIT WAIT! Blonde hair! Short!” Ed prickled. “Snarling when mentioned that he’s short!” She gasped quite audibly, “ Are you  _ Ed _ ?  _ Edward Elric! _ ?”

 

Ed leaned as far away as he could from this psychopath, “eh- yes. Does Winry really talk about me that much?”

 

“She does  _ more _ than just  _ talk _ !” The girl emphasized. “Oh boy does she  _ complain _ !  _ Edward Elric! Always breaking my beautiful automail! _ ” 

 

Ed felt the colour drain from his face as he realized that he was there for the exact same reason she always complained about him. “You know what Al? We should come back tomorrow! I can do without my quirk for another day! It’s not worth the head trauma I’ll receive today!” Ed tried to scurry away but Al was, of course, in his way.

 

“Just suck it up, brother. She won’t kill you,” Al shrugged.

 

Ed scanned the entrance to the engineering classroom, then pulled behind Al, “you call for her. She won’t hit you as hard-“

 

“HEY WINRY! ITS EDWARD ELRIC! THE GUY YOU ARE ALWAYS TALKING ABOUT!” The girl called. 

 

Ed felt the air shift as a chill ran down his spine, then he watched as Al grabbed Midoriya and _ ducked.  _

 

Then he saw the dreaded wrench flying right towards his face before drilling him in the forehead and knocking him back a few feet. He landed hard on his back then curled in pain as he pressed his working arm against his forehead, “GAHHHH!!”

 

Winry’s shadow fell over him and he felt her rip off his sling and look at his arm, “HOW THE HELL DID YOU BREAK MY AUTOMAIL _ALREADY_?! What the _hell_ are you doing in those hero courses to cause this kind of damage on the _second_ _day_?!”

 

Ed sat up, still massaging his stinging forehead from Winry’s terrifyingly accurate aim, “we were battle training. The other guy iced the whole ass building and I slipped!”

 

“He slipped twice,” Al piped in. He squeaked as Winry turned her fiery gaze onto him, “I didn’t break mine! Promise! It’s all working perfectly!”

 

Midoriya glanced at Al in surprise, which Ed realized that their classmates didn’t know Al also had automail. Midoriya had already shown he had a knack for questions, so Ed needed to divert his questions to a different topic before he could interrogate Al about it, “Hey Midoriya, I don’t think you’ve met Winry! She’s the one who made my automail!” 

 

Winry smacked the back of his head, “I won’t make it anymore if you keep  _ breaking _ it!”

 

While the extra smack was unwelcome, he was satisfied to see that Midoriya took the bait as he looked at Winry with sparkling eyes, “you made prosthetics that can connect to the human nervous system?” 

 

Winry looked up, scanning Midoriya up and down before breaking out a smile from the praise, “I’m not an expert just yet, but I make sure that what I make is the best possible model I can make at the time.”

 

Midoriya’s notebook was already out, “can you tell me more about it? How it works? If you can make automail that relates to quirks or even increase their potential? If there are different models out there?” 

 

Ed noticed Winry light up immediately, “I’d be happy to! Let’s do it while I fix this idiots automail though,” she grinned.

 

“Hey! It was an accident! I couldn’t help what I hit when I fell down those stairs!” Ed tried to defend himself.

 

“You broke… my precious automail… by falling down  _ stairs _ ?” 

 

“Uh-!” Ed realized his mistake, “maybe?”

 

Winry’s eyebrow twitched, “ _ well, we better get you fixed up then _ .”

 

He didn’t like how she said that.

 

-

 

-

 

-

 

Midoriya and Winry spent the next hour talking about quirks and ideas of what Winry could invent to improve those quirks. A lot of it was theoretical and wondering how those quirks worked scientifically. Which Ed or Al would pitch in some theories of their own based on the quirks of popular heroes. Of course, Ed would bark or hiss from time to time as Winry would tighten something a bit too tight or accidentally tap against his side too hard. Despite their conversations, Al could tell that she was still mad at Ed for breaking his arm during a training exercise. This was why he made sure to take care of his automail, very carefully too. He remembered once after the extensive surgery, the pair got a bit too rough during a spar and managed to break their automail. Winry nearly launched them into the sun for such a stunt, making sure her repairs were none too gentle.

 

While Al had taken that lesson to heart, Ed still would flaunt around and neglect care for his prosthetics without the right reminders. Al was pretty sure that if Ed had to distract a villain by tearing off his arm, he would do so without hesitation. Heck, if someone dared him to do it, he probably would tear off his arm before his common sense kicked in. 

 

In the end, they both learned that Winry had some deadly aim with her wrench. Spooky good aim. 

 

It wasn’t even part of her quirk.

 

If she threw her wrench at an intended target, it would hit them, no matter what. It would never miss. Al once tried to avoid it, ducking out of the way and thinking he was in the clear before the wrench bounced off a pipe and nailed him in the back of the head. You just couldn’t fight it.

 

Winry leaned back, connecting Ed’s nerves without warning and causing him to hiss in pain. That was always the nastiest part of repairs or upgrades. “Warn me next time, Winry!” Ed growled, rolling his shoulder as he tested his calibration.

 

“Next time, don’t break my automail!” Winry snapped back, harshly tapping him on the head with her wrench before standing up and clearing her work station.

 

“It was an accident! It’s that kid with the half toned hair’s fault!” Ed tried to defend himself.

 

“I don’t care! Just be more careful!” 

 

Ed huffed, getting to his feet and stretching before pulling his shirt back on. Midoriya seemed to want to reach out and touch the automail, fingers twitching against his notebook as he failed to hide his stare. He then caught Al’s eye and jolted, then his eyes lit up as he realized something. “I never got to see your quirk either! And I don’t think I’ve figured out Winry’s just yet either!”

 

Winry closed her toolbox, “my quirk isn’t flashy like these idiots, in fact, it’s nearly invisible. I thought I was quirkless until we finally went to visit a quirk specialist. Mine is called ‘delicate touch’.” Midoriya’s notebook was open, pen pressed against the paper as he wrote it down. Then looked up as he urged her to explain. “My quirk basically allows me to touch, or move things with extreme precision and care. I can make complicated card castles in less than a minute and it’s very useful when working with small circuits and gears. Not to mention, if I chose, I could pickpocket anything without anyone noticing. They won’t feel my touch.”

 

“Wow, so it’s really important in this field of work, especially if your machine needs small and precise adjustments!” Midoriya admired.

 

“That’s right! It’s helped me get farther in engineering since I’m able to put things together faster for experiments,” Winry nodded, seeming to beam with pride.

 

Midoriya then turned to Al, “what about you? I never saw you use yours during the trials on the first day. You mentioned it wasn't suited for physical tests like that?”

 

Al nodded, deciding to tell Midoriya just basic information of his quirk instead of showing off like Ed, “my quirk is called Soul Transfer’. It allows me to jump out of my body and into other things, which leaves my body a bit empty, which is the reason why it isn’t the best to test physically.”

 

“Souls? Is that really a thing you can manipulate?” Midoriya asked, his brow creasing as he seemed to try and wrap his head around the idea. “It’s such a strange thing to think about. How does that even work without… dying?”

 

Al tapped a finger to his chin, “it’s… hard to explain sometimes. But when my soul is out of my body it’s not… disconnected. It’s still attached hence my time limit outside my body. Though I’ve figured that the time increases based on personal exercise of my quirk, as well as will probably increase as I get older.”

 

“But how do you know you are still connected? Is it just a feeling or…?”

 

Al perked up, “actually! Souls seem to be attached to bodies by these thin strings! The healthier and more lively people have lots of strings. Those who are sickly or possibly even close to death have very few. As long as I don’t touch those strings, I don’t risk disconnecting souls from anyone’s bodies!”

 

Midoriya paused, “the way you said that… can you manipulate  _ other _ people’s souls as well?”

 

Al flinched, realizing he may have overexplained his string thing, “uh- well… yes,” he rubbed the back of his head. People never reacted too well when he revealed he could actual manipulate others souls. A person's soul is… very personal. The thought of someone able to pull that out of their body wasn’t the best thing to think about.

 

“That’s incredible! Does that mean you can see souls, or is it more of a feeling? Can those people fight back as a ghost or something or are they unconscious to it all? Can you take over bodies as well? Do you have to fight for control?” Midoriya poured his questions on Al like an avalanche, and frankly he was feeling a bit overwhelmed.

 

He turned his gaze to Ed, “big brother, help,” he gasped, the words pouring out of Midoriya mixing into a muddled mess.

 

Once again, Midoriya stopped. And Al was relieved he could hear his own thoughts once again. “Big… you’re not twins?”

 

Al felt the sweat begin to gather on his face, beading especially on his forehead as he seemed to fail to keep any secrets today, “uh-... we never said we were…”

 

“And  _ you’re _ the younger one?” He directed this to Al. 

 

Ed prickled, stomping forward, “of course he is! I’m taller and more responsible!” Midoriya’s eyes immediately shot to Ed’s newly repaired arm, then back up at Ed who caught the quick glance. His older brother flared up even more, “IT’S NOT MY FAULT ICE IS SLIPPERY! I’M THE OLDER BROTHER BY TWO YEARS!! IT  _ REALLY _ SHOULDN’T BE THAT HARD TO UNDERSTAND!!!”

 

Midoriya opened and closed his mouth like a gaping fish, eyes wide with his hands held up in defense. “I- it’s just- two years?- But-?”

 

Ed clamped a hand around Al’s wrist, storming out of the classroom as he yelled, “LET’S GO, AL. MY HEAD HURTS AND WE STILL NEED TO MEET THIS ‘RECOVERY GIRL’.”

 

Al managed to wave a small farewell to Midoriya before he was dragged out of the room, which Midoriya still seemed quite lost for words. 

 

He heard an excited gasp come from the room as they left, the familiar voice of that pink haired girl exclaiming something about ‘that was  _ him?!’  _ He never heard the rest of it though as Ed dragged him around the corner and up the stairs, his grip like steel as he determinedly made his way to the nurses office.

 

His brother was so dramatic.

 

-

 

-

 

-

 

Izuku looked between the pink haired girl whose name he never caught and Winry. “I-I don’t know what’s-?” His mind was racing, something about those brothers screamed secrets. And a lot of them. Ed seemed to be quite open at first, while having a somewhat aggressive personality, he was much more tame than Bakugou. Most times. 

 

He didn’t suspect anything out of the ordinary, other than a small glance at his brother from time to time. But that was just a sibling thing, wasn’t it?

 

Then on their way here Al said that Winry was  _ their _ mechanic, not just  _ Ed _ ’s. Izuku thought maybe he just considered her their mechanic because they both knew her, but now Izuku was having second thoughts. Was it possible the younger brother also had automail? What kind of incident would lead to both the brothers needing specialized prosthetics?

 

Al even seemed to try and hold back when explaining how his quirk worked, seeming to panic when he realized how much he told Izuku. Then it was revealed that there was a two year difference between them, which meant that Al was only 13. Did he really manage to get into UA despite being two years younger than the average applicant?

 

Why rush to get into this school? What school did they use to go to? Did Al just excel at all his classes and managed to skip two years?

 

Why hide any of this?

 

He wanted to ask Winry, she seemed to know a lot about the pair since she was their mechanic (and possibly childhood friend?). Yet she was nowhere to be seen as Izuku snapped out of his thoughts, realizing with a start that there were a lot of other people here now crowding around a source point. The pink haired girl with odd eyes being that source, waving her hands wildly as a crazy grin spread across her face. “Yes! We just missed him but Winry can confirm that he was the armour kid!”

 

The entire group began to chant wildly, “ARMOUR KID! ARMOUR KID! ARMOUR KID!” 

 

“Winry you need to tell us where he went!”

 

“The class used their costumes today, right?”

 

“Did he like the design?”

 

“That kid managed to fit in that thing? That’s awesome!”

 

“Winry tell usssss!!!”

 

Winry has been swarmed by her classmates, clearly unable to escape their grasp as she tried to push through, “I can’t tell you that! You can ask him when you see him again!”

 

“Winry!!!”

 

“Please!!!!”

 

“But- But ARMOUR KID!!!”

 

“Move you  _ heathens _ !!” Winry hissed, still being crowded to the point where she was getting pissed.

 

“ _ Winryyyyyy _ !!!!!”

 

“Tell us where he  _ lives _ !!”

 

“He is a  _ god _ now among us!”

 

“ **Armour kid** !”

 

Izuku reaches forward and dragged Winry out of the group, surprising both her and the entire class of crazed engineering students. He then booked it to the door and slammed it shut behind them to keep the class from following them for the time being. “Why are they calling Al,  _ Armour kid _ ?” Izuku couldn’t help but ask.

 

“The idiot didn’t submit an actual design for his costume,” Winry sighed, clearly relieved to have been saved from that chaotic situation. “Just a piece of paper with neat writing saying he wanted a suit of armour, then some dimensions and materials he wanted for some specific areas. That’s it.”

 

“It doesn’t sound that bad…” Izuku frowned, still unable to figure out why such simple instructions led to this.

 

Winry laughed under her breath before speaking, “he basically gave a group of engineering kids a project where they could go  _ buck wild _ . You saw his costume, right? Do you realize how estastic the class was when they saw how big it was supposed to be and that they could come up with whatever design they wanted?”

 

Izuku then began to catch on to her reasoning, “instead of following thorough instructions, they got to basically experiment with whatever they wanted!”

 

Winry nodded, “that suit of armour was the first thing done because everyone worked on it for a solid day. They dubbed him armour kid ever since and now there is a shrine.”

 

“There… there’s a shrine?” Izuku squeaked.

 

“There’s always a shrine. When I was in middle school, my engineering club built a shrine to a vending machine because it broke and we had free snacks that barely lasted a day.”

 

“That’s… interesting,” Izuku nodded, unsure of what to think about this new information.

 

Winry waved her hand dismissively, “I have a feeling it’s going to get a whole lot more ‘interesting’ as this year goes on. I have no doubt those idiots will find a way to break something  _ again _ .”

 

“So you know Ed and Al pretty well?” Izuku asked.

 

Winry shrugged again, “we grew up together. Don’t bother asking me what goes through their heads though, it’s not like they tell me anything.”

 

Izuku looked ahead blankly, “childhood friends… come in different forms, I guess.”

 

She cast a side eye to his sling and bandages, then back at the hallway they were walking down, “they aren’t bad. Just… a bit secretive. Closed off, per say. They want to do right, and while they may both be two idiots who share a single brain cell when it comes to common sense, they have their hearts in the right place.” She playfully elbowed his side, “but you seem like one of the smart ones in that class. So maybe you can keep an eye out for them for me?”

 

Izuku thought back to his multiple brash decisions that usually included him disintegrating his bones. He wouldn’t really call any of that ‘smart’. “An eye out?”

 

Winry leaned next to him, dropping her arm casually around his shoulder in a friendly manner, “I’ve seen you pass by our class twice now with pretty bad injuries.  _ Maybe you can work with those idiots to make sure you both stop breaking your fucking arms _ ?” Her tone was dark but her expression was cheerful, a horrifying combination as she let him free and waved a farwell and skipped out the door of the school.

 

He suddenly felt like he was being held hostage to be the responsible one of the group. And a growing sense of dread told him that he was probably going to fail and that wrench that nailed Ed in the head would soon have a new target. 

 

Honestly, she was  _ very _ cool despite being pretty scary.

 

-

 

-

 

-

 

Recovery Girl frowned at Ed’s bleeding scalp and bruised body, clicking her tongue before leaning forward and planting a kiss on Ed’s forehead. Ed immediately reeled away after she did so, shouting in confusion, “WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!”

 

Recovery Girl frowned, “My quirk. Do you feel better now?”

 

Ed then realized the aching parts of his body were no longer aching, and his headache had faded. “Did it really require the kiss though? You remind me of a pint sized old hag.”

 

“Ed! Granny Pinako is very nice to us!” Al barked, always quick to defend anyone he mocks.

 

“Granny Pinako? You mean Pinako Rockbell?” Recovery Girl asked.

 

Al nodded, “we live with her and her granddaughter. She can be harsh but she is good to us. Do you know her?”

 

Recovery girl cracked a sly grin, “oh, I know her. Best mechanic we had for a long time before she retired!”

 

Ed and Al’s eyes widened in surprise, “that pint sized hag use to be a mechanic for  _ heroes _ ?” Ed exclaimed.

 

Al smacked his brother, “stop calling her that!”

 

“She was the greatest, best equipment that never failed to fulfill its purpose. Everyone was disappointed when she left but… she had a good reason to,” Recovery Girl trailed off. Ed and Al already knew the story from there, a very bleak day that lead to Winry shutting them out for nearly a month. “How in the world did she end up raising such a stupid boy?”

 

“Hey! I’m  _ not _ stupid! I just happened to fall down a flight of stairs!” Ed tried to defend himself.

 

“Twice,” Al added again with a grin.

 

“ _ IT WAS ACCIDENTAL,”  _ Ed hissed through gritted teeth. 

 

“You’re right big brother, you aren’t stupid,” Al suddenly nodded. Ed looked at him in surprise, then saw that horrible smirk he pulled right before he was about to drag Ed through the dirt even more. “You just lack common sense.”

 

“I’M GOING TO KILL YOU, AL!” Ed shrieked and lunged at his brother, who ducked out of the way with a laugh and darted out the door. Ed ignored Recovery Girl as she called after them, tearing down the hallway after his brother as Al laughed mockingly at him. 

 

He just fucking knew Al wasn’t going to let this go for a long while.

 

-

 

-

 

-

 

Recovery Girl watched as the older Elric gave chase to the younger one, tearing out the door before she could tell him about the side effects of the use of his stamina. Though it didn’t seem like it affected him that much based on his rambunctious energy he displayed. Who thought it was a great idea to put two brothers in the same class?

 

Probably the same idiot who created an exercise that sent two of his students to the infirmary. One worse for wear than the other.

 

Toshinori was going to get one hell of a tongue lashing once she found him, his poor teaching skills quite clear on the fact that the poor Midoriya boy had already visited this ward twice in the last two days. These two latest visitors definitely screamed trouble as well, she had no doubt they would find their way to this ward again before long.

 

She frowned as she thought about the metal arm and leg Edward bore, scar tissue that circled the connections to the limbs obviously years old despite the boy being so young. She couldn’t ignore his brothers limp either, or his heavy footsteps as he stepped into the room. She remembered Nedzu approaching her as he nodded to her and told her not to ask any questions about them.

 

She finally understood what he meant by not asking questions. 

 

She sighed, gently placing her medical equipment away for the day as she prepared to head home. For that past many years she worked at this school, she came across the usual injuries from the hero course. It wasn’t like this was the first time she encountered reckless children determined to push the limits a bit too far. 

 

So why did she feel like there was some sort of forbording danger coming along this year with this class?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is always a cult. 
> 
> You can’t stop students who need to believe in a higher power to get through their studies.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The class picks a class rep, the group meets an interesting character in the cafeteria, and Izuku meets a friend of the Elric Brothers!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It’s going to get exciting soon! For now we gotta deal with teenager drama.

Al ducked as one of Ed’s notebooks flew over his head, his older brother falling back into another screaming fest with Bakugou. Bakugou was the one who instigated the fight, loudly exclaiming how funny it was to watch Ed get his ass kicked by a single flight of stairs. Ed, who already was on edge that morning and was quite verbal about picking a fight with Todoroki, immediately jumped on the bait, then at the other blonde and began the scream fest. Al had scooted over to Yaoyorozu, nodding a friendly hello before turning his attention back to his brother. He debated ending the fight by using his quirk, but then he would just become the ender of the fights for the rest of the year instead of allowing them to actually solve their own problems. Maybe if they screamed enough, they would both lose their voice and just fistfight until they both knocked each other unconscious.

 

“Duck,” Al warned Yaoyorozu, carefully pulling her down when she didn’t react fast enough to avoid another flying book that was aimed for her face.

 

“Shouldn’t we stop them?” She gasped, looking behind her in surprise as the book lodged itself into the back wall.

 

“They’ll eventually tire each other out. Or one will throw the other out the window,” Al shrugged.

 

“This sounds like an everyday event you deal with…” Yaoyorozu frowned.

 

Al smirked, thinking back to all the occasions Ed threw himself into a fight without so much as a second thought, “you could say that.” Al glanced around the room, Iida loudly pushing his way into the screaming fest in an attempt to end it while Midoriya and Uraraka tried pulling him away with worried shouts. Kirishima, Kaminari, Sero, and Mina gathered in a circle and chanted, cheering or booing as new insults were thrown. 

 

Hagakure entered the room, squeaking in terror as another book shot past her. She turned around frantically, as if looking for a safe area to avoid getting school supplies drilled into her forehead. Al raised a hand and gestured her over, “Good morning!” He called.

 

“Why are they fighting  _ again _ ?!” Hagakure exclaimed as she ducked behind Al and Yaoyorozu. 

 

“Bakugou insulted Ed and my brother isn’t the type to just back down from that kind of thing. I wish he would learn to let some things go,” Al sighed.

 

“You  _ must _ be the older twin, you are way more mature than…” Hagakure paused, Al only assumed she tried to think of a good word to describe Ed as she observed him pick up a chair and toss it at Bakugou, promptly destroying the chair as Bakugou destroyed it with his explosions. 

 

“He’s destroying school property again…” Al sighed. “I should probably intervene before he throws a desk out the window.”

 

That’s when the distinctive rolls of Mr. Aizawa’s scarf shot across the room and separated the pair before tangling them up in the fabric, “the threat of expulsion is still very real, and if I have to walk in on this dumpster fire every single morning, be sure that I will toss you both out onto the curb.” Al felt a chill run down his spine as he saw their teacher’s eyes glow a menacing red as he spoke, his soul flaring up before flickering back down as he released the pair of explosive blondes. Both of which had been aggressively chewing on the scarf in an attempt to break free. 

 

Why was his brother so  _ embarrassing _ ?

 

Without another word, every other class member scrambled to their seat as Mr. Aizawa made his way to the front of the class. “Now. For today…”

 

Everyone in the room tensed up, ready for another intense training session to be held.

 

“You will choose a class representative.”

 

“ _ That’s so normal! _ ” The entire class exclaimed in surprise.

 

“I don’t care how you go about it, just do so quietly. I’ll be under the desk until you’re done,” then Mr. Aizawa zipped up his sleeping bag he was suddenly in and rolled under the desk, promptly disappearing from view. Al turned to Yaoyorozu with a frown, “um, what is a class representative?”

 

She looked at him in surprise, “surely, you are kidding?”

 

Al shook his head, suddenly becoming embarrassed by his own question, “should it be something I should know about?”

 

“All classes pick out a representative for their class, which is the person who organizes class events, allows connections between all the classmates, and leads the class as a representation! Didn’t you pick out class representatives in middle school?” Yaoyorozu explained before questioning him again.

 

Al nervously scratched at his cheek, flushing as he looked away, “I- ah, was homeschooled until now.”

 

“Homeschooled?” She leaned forward, “that’s not a very common practice anymore… wait that means-! You never went to middle school! And neither did Ed, which I’m guessing based on the way he wears his uniform…”

 

Al shook his head, “he just doesn’t like uniforms in general, but yes, we both didn’t go to middle school. So a lot of this is… new…”

 

“Oh but that’s also so exciting! Why didn’t you two tell us sooner? Now you get to experience things like clubs and school events and so much more for the first time!” She squealed, nearly bouncing out of her seat.

 

“It seems we have decided on a voting system!” Iida interrupted the pair, catching their attention. Right, class representation. “Everyone write your vote on a piece of paper, then fold it and hand it forward! Whoever has the most votes, will be the class representative!”

 

That sounded easy enough. So… who would be beat to represent the class? Who was the best leader? Al glanced at Ed, who was trying to balance a pencil on the bridge of his nose. 

 

Yeah… no. His brother was probably the worst choice.

 

He thought back to their exercise from yesterday, which Midoriya’s fight seemed to stand out the most. He came up with a well thought out plan and directed Uraraka to help him execute it perfectly. While he was a bit self destructive, he showed skills of a leader. It was pretty admirable. 

 

So he cast his vote for Midoriya, and he felt a small spark of excitement shoot through him. School was… kind of fun!

 

-

 

-

 

-

 

Al sat next to Ed with his lunch, spotting Midoriya across the room and hearing him mutter frantically under his breath despite the distance. He seemed really surprised by the outcome, which was surprising based on the fact that he had a tendency to light up the room whenever he walked in. He had an… interesting personality.

 

Ed played with his fork a little before stabbing it into his food, “stupid blonde motherfucker…” Ed muttered as he shoveled a pile of mashed up lunch into his mouth.

 

“You really need to let go of this grudge, brother,” Al sighed.

 

“What grudge? I don’t have a grudge!” Ed quickly denied.

 

“This is the third day and you nearly threw a desk out the window this morning, I’m pretty sure it’s a grudge,” Al neatly took his own bite of food.

 

“Look, he’s stupid and an ass and he should know it,” Ed pointed his fork at Al as Al returned an unimpressed look. Ed then pulled back, “he starts it! So clearly I have to finish it!”

 

“You never finish it, you escalate it,” Al frowned. “We are going to spend the next three years in the same class, you two really need to settle whatever it is you have because it’s not like you’re going to see any less of each other.”

 

“I’ll back down when he admits that I’m better than him,” Ed stubbornly hissed. 

 

“We are here to all get better at using our quirks! Especially to help people! And destroying property isn’t really helping anyone,” Al rolled his eyes. Not to mention that other thing they were low-key looking for. The only way they could possibly get more information was most likely through good student work, and Ed was somewhat sabotaging that plan.

 

“Well I’m still better than him and I’ll always be better than him and who is the dead guy.”

 

Al paused, “the… what?”

 

Ed was looking at the floor near their table, and as Al leaned over he spotted some odd kid lying face first on the ground. “No wait, he’s still breathing. He’s fine,” Ed dismissed.

 

“Brother!” Al cried in alarm as he dropped next to the kid. “Hey, are you alright?” Al asked, shaking the kid. He didn’t even notice him drop next to them, it was like he just… appeared there!

 

“Is there a problem over here?” Iida was suddenly standing over them, Midoriya and Uraraka also worriedly looking down beside him.

 

“I don’t know!” Al exclaimed.

 

“I’m sure he’s  _ fine _ ,” Ed groaned. 

 

“If he was fine, why is he laying on the ground?” Iida asked.

 

“ _ Foood…”  _

 

Everyone looked at the kid in surprise. 

 

“Did…?”

 

A loud growl exploded from the kid, and everyone froze from it.

 

“Is he… just hungry?” Midoriya asked.

 

“We should give him some food then!” Uraraka exclaimed.

 

“We are surrounded by food, it’s  _ lunch _ ,” Ed emphasized.

 

“Get him some food!” Midoriya exclaimed, dashing back to his table and snatching his lunch tray before returning it and sliding it towards the kid. 

 

They reached forward weakly, then the next thing they knew, they were crowded at Ed and Al’s table as the kid sat upright with a satisfied grin. “Thanks so much for your kindness! I thought I was a goner!”

 

“A goner? We are in a cafeteria, the last place someone would die of starvation!” Ed shrieked in the kids face, which he seemed unaffected by with a small unwavering smile.

 

“You see, I forgot my lunch at home today. And I didn’t have the strength to reach the kind women serving lunch today!”

 

“Oh, does your quirk correlate with food then?” Midoriya asked, gears clearly turning in his head as he seemed to try and rule out possible quirks related to such a limiting factor.

 

“Actually, I’m quirkless!” The kid chirped.

 

Everyone deadpanned, so this guy was just over dramatic then…

 

“I’m Ling! From general studies, and you all must be from the hero course, am I right?” Ling leaned forward with a grin.

 

“You are correct!” Iida nodded. “My name is Tenya Iida and these are my peers! Midoriya, Uraraka, Edward, and Alphonse!”

 

“Ed and Al, nicknames make it much easier to remember,” Ed corrected, shooting a glare at Ling. “So, why are you still sitting here? Planning to mooch more food off of us?” 

 

“There’s no need to be so cold!” Uraraka exclaimed.

 

“No, no! You already helped me so much!” Ling nodded, and Al noticed he was sitting cross-legged on the bench… he was quite odd indeed. “Though, heroes know a lot about quirks, right?” Midoriya’s eyes lit up faster than the speed of light at the question. “What with the fighting of villains and such, so you much be learning about quirks too! I’ve been hunting down some rumours for some time now and I have got to ask… have any of you heard of an object called… the philosopher stone?” 

 

Midoriya, Uraraka, and Iida shook their heads, Midoriya frowning in confusion as if he’s heard of it before but couldn’t quite place his finger on  _ where _ . 

 

Al shot a glance at Ed, who gave a slight shake of his head to him in response before turning back to Ling, “isn’t that a rock from some old book written centuries ago? Or from tales about ‘magic’ before quirks formed?”

 

Ling’s smile faintly wavered, a hint of disbelief flashing across his features before he threw back his head and laughed, “Ah! Of course! Just a tale, indeed. I may have to ask actual pro heroes or students in higher grades! Well, I should go find my friend! It was nice meeting all of you!” Ling then jumped from his seat and casually walked into a crowd of people, disappearing from sight.

 

He saw Ed and Al’s quick exchange, there was no doubt about that, so he wondered why Ling didn’t press further into the matter?

 

“A philosopher stone?” Midoriya muttered under his breath. “I’ve heard that name before. It must be related to quirks in some sort of matter but I can’t seem to remember how or what it actually was or looked like. Where have I seen it though? It was extremely recently and it was never something too important because if it was I probably would’ve looked more into so why is it sticking to the back of my tongue like this? I was sure, so sure but where and why-?”

 

Ed flicked Midoriya’s forehead, promptly snapping him out of his mumbling, “that’s getting annoying.”

 

“That is very rude!” Iida exclaimed.

 

Al sighed, “Ed is the definition of rude. He doesn’t know how manners work and probably never will!”

 

“I am not!” Ed barked back.

 

“You just flicked Midoriya in the forehead!” Uraraka recalled. “But at least you aren’t Bakugou, much more bark than bite.”

 

“Hey! Don’t compare me to that hedgehog head! And I don’t yell  _ that  _ much!” Ed yelled.

 

“Oh I got it!” Uraraka stood up suddenly, catching everyone’s attention. “Ed is like a chihuahua! Small dog with the biggest bark!”

 

The group fell silent before a collective laugh exploded from the table, Ed being the only one not laughing as he screamed in anger and jumped on the table to threaten Uraraka. Which she barely noticed from laughing so hard. Like she said, he was all bark and no bite as he stomped his foot and screamed to the sky. 

 

It was only when Al felt an odd soul appear further in the school that he realized there was an alarm going off, Ed’s yelling being much louder that it actually managed to blend into the noise almost seamlessly. Then the soul was gone and he was left somewhat confused as the cafeteria fell into a panic, catching the group off guard as they were previously oblivious to the alarm. His quirk must’ve went haywire for a moment there, but he couldn’t fully focus on that as the panicking crowds of students dragged apart the small group. Only Ed was left unaffected, protected by the fact that he was standing on the table.

 

He seemed almost dazed, then slammed down his foot and screamed, “Hey, what the  _ FUCK _ ?”

 

-

 

-

 

-

 

Izuku was the last person to leave class, exhausted by all the excitement of choosing a class rep, nearly getting trampled by a crowd of students, then passing over the class rep position to Iida who clearly deserved it and would fit the role perfectly. Now to go home and train so he could eventually utilize one for all’s power.

 

He caught a glimpse of the Elric brothers up ahead, and a new thought crossed his mind. At lunch, that odd kid, Ling, mentioned something called a Philosopher Stone. He had heard that title mentioned before, but he couldn’t remember if it was from a book or if someone told him about it. Something about it tugged at the back of Izuku’s mind, it was important, right? But for the life of him he couldn’t figure out why it was important, or exactly what it  _ did _ . Thinking back, he did notice Al look at Ed like he actually knew something about the subject when the stone was mentioned. Then Ed played it off like they were talking about a fairy tail, brushing it off like it wasn’t important at all.

 

There is was again. The  _ secrets _ .

 

There always seemed to be one thing the pair would leave out, an unspoken bit of information they never shared. 

 

It was easy to miss too, they both shared enough to make it seem like they explained everything. Then there would be that look.

 

And the subject would then be changed.

 

It was pretty incredible how well they worked together. 

 

Maybe he should ask them about the stone right now while they were alone? Even if he did ask… they probably would brush him off as well now that he thought about it. Maybe it was a family secret? The brothers seemed so nice too, so maybe they would open up if it was just him?

 

Ah! He didn’t know what to think! Everything about those two seemed so straight forward and also so complicated all at the same time! 

 

He would just ask! If they didn’t answer him, then they didn’t answer! 

 

He stepped towards the two, ready to ask his questions when an adult stepped right into his path, promptly blocking him and casually leaning forward. Izuku stumbled back from him as the stranger looked his way, hard and focused eyes training down and picking out each and every detail. 

 

A pro hero?

 

If he was, he would be fairly new, since Izuku didn’t recognize any defining features. Maybe he was a teacher?

 

“Are you one of the students of this school?”

 

This wasn’t a teacher.

 

“Sir, he’s wearing a school  _ uniform. _ ” A blonde woman appeared from around the corner, holding a stack of papers as she looked mildly annoyed. (Or was it amused?)

 

“ _ I knew that!” _ The man exclaimed, quite ruffled up before he reverted back to his cool state. “He could have been someone who stole a uniform and disguised themselves as a student, and me asking him would’ve sent him in a panic if he really was a spy! But clearly he’s a student, which I deducted on my own!” The man nodded to himself like he was confident that he didn’t just make a mistake. “Now, where were you when the school alarms went off?”

 

Izuku then recognized the city police uniforms, they must be investigating the cause of the alarm! “Uh-! In the cafeteria! I believe everyone was there when the alarm went off! Other than teachers of course…” Izuku thought back to the chaotic afternoon.

 

“And why were you there?”

 

Izuku caught the blond woman rolling her eyes as she shook her head, “it was lunch. It’s where everyone goes to eat it.”

 

“Right! Well then, that takes basically all the students off the suspect list!” The man nodded.

 

“You make it sound like a big twist, sir,” the woman sighed.

 

“Mr. Mustang?”

 

Izuku perked up as Al’s voice cut through, and he leaned to look around the detective and see Al looking up at the man with a big smile while his brother seemed eager to try and drag them both out the door. The detective cracked a smug grin, “Well, if it isn’t the Elric brothers. You managed to get into the hero school, huh? Did you use my recommendation?”

 

Ed jumped up before Al could speak, shoving him to the side as he stormed towards the man, “I didn’t use you’re crappy written garbage, which was  _ impossible  _ to read, by the way!” The detectives smirk grew wider the closer Ed got. “We got in because we are  _ just  _ that good! Why are you even here? Don’t you have  _ actual _ murders to investigate?”

 

Mustang waved a hand casually, “I like working on multiple cases at once, helps give a different view of each case each time I revolve back to it. Not to mention, it’s interesting to see what kind of incident happens at UA that calls for an investigation. Even if it’s a small one.”

 

“You two know this guy?” Izuku piped in, clearly picking up on some history between the two pairs. 

 

Serious history, in fact.

 

_ Kacchan and his kind of history. _

 

Al’s smile brightened, “oh! You met Midoriya!” He limped forward and roughly shoved his brother aside, “Midoriya, this is Mr. Mustang. He helped my brother and I quite a few years ago! He also tends to see Ed a lot because of his tendency to do… Ed stuff.”

 

“It’s called  _ research _ and it’s perfectly legal. Some people are just annoying old farts who think science is  _ too loud _ !” Ed bit back quickly.

 

Mustangs grin didn’t waver as he crossed his arms, “Well, at least now you have a place to conduct your ‘experiments’ where I won’t get involved if you go over the top. I’m sure the teachers here are extremely tolerant of such a thing!” 

 

Al grabbed his brother by the collar just as he lunged himself at Mustang, “I’ll show you tolerant you smug piece of sh-!”

 

“We should probably get going, we have some things to do today! Homework and such! It was nice seeing you Mr. Mustang and Ms. Hawkeye!” Al shakily smiled before he somehow managed to drag his rabid brother out the school doors. Mustang watched them leave before turning back to Izuku, a new gleam in his eyes.

 

“So I’m guessing you are in the same class as those two?”

 

Izuku jerked upright, “yes! They are very… exciting to be around!” He thought about Ed and Kacchans clashing personalities, and Al’s cool temperament to the outbursts. They were a strange pair indeed.

 

“Exciting is one way to describe them…”

 

“Was what set off the alarm really that worrying? I thought the teachers said it was just some persistent media groups?”

 

The detective shrugged, “honestly, I’m sure there’s nothing to worry about. It was just one freak accident that led to a small overreaction. I’m sure that the rest of your school year will run on smoothly like every other year.” 

 

Yeah. This was UA.

 

The safest place he could possibly be.

 

It was probably just that.

 

One freak accident. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Roy is going to eventually learn he just accidentally got dragged into the life of not 2 problem children but now 3.

**Author's Note:**

> And that’s when the brothers knew.
> 
> They fucked up.


End file.
